When do I use @see when dealing with JavaDocs? What is its usage?
For example if MethodA calls MethodB then do I have to put @see in MethodB's javadoc and reference MethodA because that is what called it, or do I have to put a reference to MethodB from MethodA because it's calling it. I've read the stuff about @see on the Oracle website and it seems to me to be incredibly vague, it says it means "see also" but not really what that means!
Yeah, it is quite vague.
You should use it whenever for readers of the documentation of your method it may be useful to also look at some other method. If the documentation of your methodA says "Works like methodB but ...", then you surely should put a link.
An alternative to @see would be the inline {@link ...} tag:
/**
* ...
* Works like {@link #methodB}, but ...
*/
When the fact that methodA calls methodB is an implementation detail and there is no real relation from the outside, you don't need a link here.
@see is useful for information about related methods/classes in an API. It will produce a link to the referenced method/code on the documentation. Use it when there is related code that might help the user understand how to use the API.
A good example of a situation when @see can be useful would be implementing or overriding an interface/abstract class method. The declaration would have javadoc section detailing the method and the overridden/implemented method could use a @see tag, referring to the base one.
Related question: Writing proper javadoc with @see?
Java SE documentation: @see
I use @see to annotate methods of an interface implementation class where the description of the method is already provided in the javadoc of the interface. When we do that I notice that Eclipse pulls up the interface's documentation even when I am looking up method on the implementation reference during code complete
来源：https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5011291/usage-of-see-in-javadoc