@Documented annotation in java

Question

What\'s the purpose of @Documented annotation in java?

I saw the documentation, but could not get much from it. Can someone point out with the help of an cl

Answer 1

@Documented is a meta-annotation. You apply @Documented when defining an annotation, to ensure that classes using your annotation show this in their generated JavaDoc. I've not seen much use of it, but there is an example here. An earlier question suggests that it doesn't work automatically in Eclipse, but I've tested in Eclipse 3.6, and my annotations appear in the JavaDoc popups whether or not I attach the @Documented annotation to them.

Here's an example from Spring, which ensures that transactional methods are marked as such in the JavaDoc:

@Target({ElementType.METHOD, ElementType.TYPE})
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Inherited
@Documented
public @interface Transactional {