How Exactly Does @param Work - Java

Question

How does the annotation @param work?

If I had something like this:

/* 
*@param testNumber;
*/

int testNumber = 5;
if (testNumber < 6) {
   //Something
}

How would the @param affect the testNumber? Does it even affect the testNumber?

Thanks. Let me know if I used it wrong.

Answer 1

@param won't affect the number. It's just for making javadocs.

More on javadoc: http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/documentation/index-137868.html

Answer 2

@param is a special format comment used by javadoc to generate documentation. it is used to denote a description of the parameter (or parameters) a method can receive. there's also @return and @see used to describe return values and related information, respectively:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/documentation/index-137868.html#format

has, among other things, this:

/**
 * Returns an Image object that can then be painted on the screen. 
 * The url argument must specify an absolute {@link URL}. The name
 * argument is a specifier that is relative to the url argument. 
 * <p>
 * This method always returns immediately, whether or not the 
 * image exists. When this applet attempts to draw the image on
 * the screen, the data will be loaded. The graphics primitives 
 * that draw the image will incrementally paint on the screen. 
 *
 * @param  url  an absolute URL giving the base location of the image
 * @param  name the location of the image, relative to the url argument
 * @return      the image at the specified URL
 * @see         Image
 */
 public Image getImage(URL url, String name) {

Answer 3

@param will not affect testNumber.It is a Javadoc comment - i.e used for generating documentation . You can put a Javadoc comment immediately before a class, field, method, constructor, or interface such as @param, @return . Generally begins with '@' and must be the first thing on the line.

The Advantage of using @param is :- By creating simple Java classes that contain attributes and some custom Javadoc tags, you allow those classes to serve as a simple metadata description for code generation.

    /* 
       *@param testNumber
       *@return integer
    */
    public int main testNumberIsValid(int testNumber){

       if (testNumber < 6) {
          //Something
        }
     }

Whenever in your code if you reuse testNumberIsValid method, IDE will show you the parameters the method accepts and return type of the method.

Answer 4

It is basically a comment. As we know, a number of people working on the same project must have knowledge about the code changes. We are making some notes in the program about the parameters.