/*
* Copyright (c) 2005, 2020, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
* DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
*
* This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
* under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as
* published by the Free Software Foundation. Oracle designates this
* particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided
* by Oracle in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code.
*
* This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
* ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
* FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
* version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that
* accompanied this code).
*
* You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version
* 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
* Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
*
* Please contact Oracle, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood Shores, CA 94065 USA
* or visit www.oracle.com if you need additional information or have any
* questions.
*/
package javax.lang.model.element;
import java.util.List;
import javax.lang.model.type.TypeMirror;
import javax.lang.model.util.*;
/**
* A visitor of the values of annotation type elements, using a
* variant of the visitor design pattern. Unlike a standard visitor
* which dispatches based on the concrete type of a member of a type
* hierarchy, this visitor dispatches based on the type of data
* stored; there are no distinct subclasses for storing, for example,
* {@code boolean} values versus {@code int} values. Classes
* implementing this interface are used to operate on a value when the
* type of that value is unknown at compile time. When a visitor is
* passed to a value's {@link AnnotationValue#accept accept} method,
* the visitXyz
method applicable to that value is
* invoked.
*
*
Classes implementing this interface may or may not throw a * {@code NullPointerException} if the additional parameter {@code p} * is {@code null}; see documentation of the implementing class for * details. * * @apiNote * WARNING: It is possible that methods will be added * to this interface to accommodate new, currently unknown, language * structures added to future versions of the Java™ programming * language. * * Such additions have already occurred in another visitor interface in * this package to support language features added after this API was * introduced. * * Visitor classes directly implementing this interface may be source * incompatible with future versions of the platform. To avoid this * source incompatibility, visitor implementations are encouraged to * instead extend the appropriate abstract visitor class that * implements this interface. However, an API should generally use * this visitor interface as the type for parameters, return type, * etc. rather than one of the abstract classes. * *
Methods to accommodate new language constructs are expected to * be added as default methods to provide strong source compatibility, * as done for {@link ElementVisitor#visitModule visitModule} in * {@code ElementVisitor}. The implementations of the default methods * in this interface will in turn call {@link visitUnknown * visitUnknown}, behavior that will be overridden in concrete * visitors supporting the source version with the new language * construct. * *
There are several families of classes implementing this visitor * interface in the {@linkplain javax.lang.model.util util * package}. The families follow a naming pattern along the lines of * {@code FooVisitor}N where N indicates the * {@linkplain javax.lang.model.SourceVersion source version} the * visitor is appropriate for. * * In particular, a {@code FooVisitor}N is expected to handle * all language constructs present in source version N. If * there are no new language constructs added in version * N + 1 (or subsequent releases), {@code * FooVisitor}N may also handle that later source version; in * that case, the {@link * javax.annotation.processing.SupportedSourceVersion * SupportedSourceVersion} annotation on the {@code * FooVisitor}N class will indicate a later version. * * When visiting an annotation value representing a language construct * introduced after source version N, a {@code * FooVisitor}N will throw an {@link * UnknownAnnotationValueException} unless that behavior is overridden. * *
When choosing which member of a visitor family to subclass, * subclassing the most recent one increases the range of source * versions covered. When choosing which visitor family to subclass, * consider their built-in capabilities: * *
the type of the additional parameter to this visitor's methods.
* @author Joseph D. Darcy
* @author Scott Seligman
* @author Peter von der Ahé
* @since 1.6
*/
public interface AnnotationValueVisitor