Java Class getAnnotations() Method

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Description

The Java Class getAnnotations() method returns all annotations present on this element. It returns an array of length zero if this element has no annotations. The caller of this method is free to modify the returned array; it will have no effect on the arrays returned to other callers.

Declaration

Following is the declaration for java.lang.Class.getAnnotations() method

public Annotation[] getAnnotations()

Parameters

NA

Return Value

This method returns all annotations present on this element.

Exception

NA

Getting Annotations of a Class Example

The following example shows the usage of java.lang.Class.getAnnotations() method. In this program, we've created an instance of ClassDemo and then using getClass() method, the class of the instance is retrieved. Using getAnnotations(), we've retrieved the array of annotations if any and then those are printed. If annotations are not present, then a message is printed accordingly.

package com.tutorialspoint;

import java.lang.annotation.Annotation;
   
public class ClassDemo {

   public static void main(String []args) {

      ClassDemo cls = new ClassDemo();
      Class c = cls.getClass();

      Annotation[] a = c.getAnnotations();
      if(a.length != 0) {
         for(Annotation val : a) {
            System.out.println(val.toString());
         }
      } else {
         System.out.println("Annotations is not present...");
      }
   }
} 

Output

Let us compile and run the above program, this will produce the following result −

Annotations is not present...

Getting Annotations of Thread Class Example

The following example shows the usage of java.lang.Class.getAnnotations() method. In this program, the class of the Thread class is retrieved. Using getAnnotations(), we've retrieved the array of annotations if any and then those are printed. If annotations are not present, then a message is printed accordingly.

package com.tutorialspoint;

import java.lang.annotation.Annotation;
   
public class ClassDemo {

   public static void main(String []args) {
      Annotation[] a = Thread.class.getAnnotations();
      if(a.length != 0) {
         for(Annotation val : a) {
            System.out.println(val.toString());
         }
      } else {
         System.out.println("Annotations is not present...");
      }
   }
} 

Output

Let us compile and run the above program, this will produce the following result −

Annotations is not present...