Question

I have enum:

public enum Scope {
    USER, GLOBAL;

    public static final Scope[] TRANSIENT = {};
    public static final Scope[] USER_OVER_GLOBAL = {GLOBAL, USER};
    public static final Scope[] GLOBAL_OVER_USER = {USER, GLOBAL};
}

and annotation:

public @interface Config {
    public Scope[] load() default Scope.GLOBAL_OVER_USER; // Can't use this defval

    public Scope[] save() default Scope.USER;
}

Why I can’t use static arrays as default values for annotation’s property? My NetBeans 7.3 Beta tell me there is required Scope but found Scope[] – as you can see this not true. Is there a NB’s or Java 7 related confusion?

Answer 1

The problem is that the Scope[] GLOBAL_OVER_USER is not all constant. (Yes, the array itself is constant, however you can change the contents of it e.g. GLOBAL_OVER_USER[0] = GLOBAL;.

A workaround is to initiate the array directly in the annotation declaration:

public Scope[] load() default {USER, GLOBAL};