Java @Target(ElementType.ANNOTATION_TYPE)

Java @Target(ElementType.ANNOTATION_TYPE)

In Java, the @Target annotation is used to specify where an annotation can be applied. The @Target annotation itself has several possible values for its ElementType parameter, which determine the allowable target elements for the annotation being defined.

When you specify ElementType.ANNOTATION_TYPE as the target for the @Target annotation, it means that the annotation you are defining can be applied to other annotations. This is known as a meta-annotation because it allows you to annotate other annotations.

Here's an example of how you can use @Target(ElementType.ANNOTATION_TYPE) to create a meta-annotation:

import java.lang.annotation.ElementType; import java.lang.annotation.Retention; import java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy; import java.lang.annotation.Target; @Target(ElementType.ANNOTATION_TYPE) @Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME) public @interface MyMetaAnnotation { String value(); }

In this example, we've created a meta-annotation called MyMetaAnnotation. This meta-annotation itself can be applied to other annotations. You can use it like this:

@MyMetaAnnotation("This is a meta-annotation") public @interface MyCustomAnnotation { String value(); }

Now, MyCustomAnnotation is a custom annotation that can be applied to elements in your code, and it has MyMetaAnnotation as its meta-annotation.

Please note that meta-annotations are not used as frequently as regular annotations, but they can be useful in scenarios where you want to add additional information or behavior to custom annotations.

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