Stray At Sign

[KevinSimonson]

I'm taking a look at a piece of Java code right now that says,

/**
* @return number of times the torrent has been downloaded.
*/
public long getDownloaded() {
return downloaded;
}

@Override
public String toString() {
return StringUtils.toString(this);
}

This looks really wierd to me. Obviously it's inside a class
declaration, that I've edited out. But can this compile? Is it
really legal to have "@Override" there before the declaration of
<toString()>, like it's some form of a comment or something? Does
anybody know what the function of this at sign is there?

Kevin Simonson

 

[KevinSimonson]

I'm taking a look at a piece of Java code right now that says,

    /**
     * @return number of times the torrent has been downloaded.
     */
    public long getDownloaded() {
        return downloaded;
    }

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return StringUtils.toString(this);
    }

This looks really wierd to me.  Obviously it's inside a class
declaration, that I've edited out.  But can this compile?  Is it
really legal to have "@Override" there before the declaration of
<toString()>, like it's some form of a comment or something?  Does
anybody know what the function of this at sign is there?

Kevin Simonson

Furthermore, I found another Java interface whose entire declaration
is:

/**
* Annotation allowing injection of a common TorrentSettings object
across the
* various torrent classes.
*/
@BindingAnnotation
@Target( { FIELD, PARAMETER, METHOD })
@Retention(RUNTIME)
public @interface TorrentSettingsAnnotation {

}

Once again it's got those stray at signs as if they're some alternate
comment symbol. Or are they compiler directives? And what's the
interface declaration "public @interface TorrentSettingsAnnotation"
all about? Is it legal to stick a stay at sign in there to the left
of the <interface> keyword?

Kevin Simonson

 

[Joshua Cranmer]

This looks really wierd to me. Obviously it's inside a class
declaration, that I've edited out. But can this compile? Is it
really legal to have "@Override" there before the declaration of
<toString()>, like it's some form of a comment or something? Does
anybody know what the function of this at sign is there?

Annotations:
<http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jls/third_edition/html/interfaces.html#9.7>
[I tried to find the new-to-Java-5 page, but Oracle really screwed up
the doc pages, so I have no idea how to navigate now].

 

[markspace]

This looks really wierd to me. Obviously it's inside a class
declaration, that I've edited out. But can this compile?

Yup.

<http://download.oracle.com/javase/1.5.0/docs/api/java/lang/Override.html>

 

[John B. Matthews]

[...]

[I tried to find the new-to-Java-5 page, but Oracle really screwed up
the doc pages, so I have no idea how to navigate now].

For reference, before and after:

<http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/guide/language/>
<http://download.oracle.com/javase/1.5.0/docs/guide/language/>

 

[Roedy Green]

Is it
really legal to have "@Override" there before the declaration of
<toString()>, like it's some form of a comment or something? Does
anybody know what the function of this at sign is there?

see http://mindprod.com/jgloss/annotations.html