Question

I need to check, form super class, if derived class have a specific annotation:

public class SuperClass
{
  public boolean hasAnnotation()
  {
    //super_class_method_code
  }
}

@annotationToCheck
public class DerivedClass extends SuperClass
{
   //derived_class_code
}

It is possible in Java? I know how to do in C# but in Java I can’t find any solution… 🙁

Thank you!!!

Answer 1

If your instance is actually of the subclass type, this is as easy as defining the method in the supertype to have the following implementation:

this.getClass().isAnnotationPresent(annotationToCheck.class);

As the this is an instance of DerivedClass, the getClass returns DerivedClass and the check works.

Note2: As @Pshemo mentions in the comments, this only works when the annotation is annotated with @Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME).