Just that there is no misunderstanding: You do ask about java.lang.annotation.Inherited. This is a annotation for annotations.It means that subclasses of annotated classes are considered having the same annotation as their superclass.
Example
Consider the following 2 Annotations:
@Inherited
@Target(ElementType.TYPE)
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
public @interface InheritedAnnotationType {
}
and
@Target(ElementType.TYPE)
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
public @interface UninheritedAnnotationType {
}
If three classes are annotated like this:
@UninheritedAnnotationType
class A {
}
@InheritedAnnotationType
class B extends A {
}
class C extends B {
}
running this code
System.out.println(new A().getClass().getAnnotation(InheritedAnnotationType.class));
System.out.println(new B().getClass().getAnnotation(InheritedAnnotationType.class));
System.out.println(new C().getClass().getAnnotation(InheritedAnnotationType.class));
System.out.println("_________________________________");
System.out.println(new A().getClass().getAnnotation(UninheritedAnnotationType.class));
System.out.println(new B().getClass().getAnnotation(UninheritedAnnotationType.class));
System.out.println(new C().getClass().getAnnotation(UninheritedAnnotationType.class));
will print a result similar to this (depending on the packages of the annotation):
null
@InheritedAnnotationType()
@InheritedAnnotationType()
_________________________________
@UninheritedAnnotationType()
null
null
As you can see UninheritedAnnotationType is not inherited but C inherits annotation InheritedAnnotationType from B.
I don’t know what methods have to do with that.