Additional Notes
Why is RetentionPolicy.SOURCE not suited for runtime reflection?
Track: Java
Topic: Java Annotations
Focus: Retention Policies
Java: Retention Policies
Answer
Annotations are discarded after compilation.
RetentionPolicy.SOURCE means annotations are only available in the source code and are discarded by the compiler. This makes them invisible at runtime, unsuitable for reflection-based frameworks like Spring Boot, which need to read annotations to configure beans or routes. For example, an annotation for documentation purposes might use SOURCE as it doesn't need runtime access.
RetentionPolicy.SOURCE means annotations are only available in the source code and are discarded by the compiler. This makes them invisible at runtime, unsuitable for reflection-based frameworks like Spring Boot, which need to read annotations to configure beans or routes. For example, an annotation for documentation purposes might use SOURCE as it doesn't need runtime access.
Topics: Java Java Annotations Retention Policies