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 * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
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 * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
 * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License
 * version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that
 * accompanied this code).
 *
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 * 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
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package javax.lang.model.element;

import java.util.Map;
import javax.lang.model.type.DeclaredType;

Represents an annotation.  An annotation associates a value with
each element of an annotation type.
 Annotations should be compared using the equals method. There is no guarantee that any particular annotation will always be represented by the same object. 
Author:
Joseph D. Darcy, Scott Seligman, Peter von der Ahé
Since:
1.6/**
 * Represents an annotation.  An annotation associates a value with
 * each element of an annotation type.
 *
 * <p> Annotations should be compared using the {@code equals}
 * method.  There is no guarantee that any particular annotation will
 * always be represented by the same object.
 *
 * @author Joseph D. Darcy
 * @author Scott Seligman
 * @author Peter von der Ah&eacute;
 * @since 1.6
 */
public interface AnnotationMirror {

    
Returns the type of this annotation.
Returns:
the type of this annotation/**
     * Returns the type of this annotation.
     *
     * @return the type of this annotation
     */
    DeclaredType getAnnotationType();

    
Returns the values of this annotation's elements.
This is returned in the form of a map that associates elements
with their corresponding values.
Only those elements with values explicitly present in the
annotation are included, not those that are implicitly assuming
their default values.
The order of the map matches the order in which the
values appear in the annotation's source.
Note that an annotation mirror of a marker annotation type
will by definition have an empty map.
To fill in default values, use 
getElementValuesWithDefaults. 
Returns:
the values of this annotation's elements,
         or an empty map if there are none/**
     * Returns the values of this annotation's elements.
     * This is returned in the form of a map that associates elements
     * with their corresponding values.
     * Only those elements with values explicitly present in the
     * annotation are included, not those that are implicitly assuming
     * their default values.
     * The order of the map matches the order in which the
     * values appear in the annotation's source.
     *
     * <p>Note that an annotation mirror of a marker annotation type
     * will by definition have an empty map.
     *
     * <p>To fill in default values, use {@link
     * javax.lang.model.util.Elements#getElementValuesWithDefaults
     * getElementValuesWithDefaults}.
     *
     * @return the values of this annotation's elements,
     *          or an empty map if there are none
     */
    Map<? extends ExecutableElement, ? extends AnnotationValue> getElementValues();
}