Advanced Features in Java: Using Custom Annotations

Skillsoft issued completion badges are earned based on viewing the percentage required or receiving a passing score when assessment is required. In this course, you'll learn about two advanced built-in annotations, @SafeVarargs and @FunctionalInterface, before moving on to defining and using your own custom annotations. You'll begin with @SafeVarargs and see that it is purely indicative and does not imply any added compiler checks, so it is important to not be lulled into a false sense of security about methods that have been decorated with this annotation. Next, you'll move to another built-in annotation, @FunctionalInterface. This is used to decorate interfaces that contain exactly one abstract method. Finally, you'll learn how to define and use custom annotations. This will involve a detailed study of target and retention policies. The retention policy determines whether the annotation will be preserved only in source code, into compiled bytecode, or all the way to runtime. Finally, you'll see how the target policy governs what code elements - fields, methods, constructors, type parameters, and classes - can be decorated with an annotation.