checker-qual/src/main/java/org/checkerframework/framework/qual/QualifierForLiterals.java

package org.checkerframework.framework.qual;

import java.lang.annotation.Documented;
import java.lang.annotation.ElementType;
import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
import java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy;
import java.lang.annotation.Target;

/**
 * A meta-annotation that indicates what qualifier should be given to literals.
 * {@code @QualifierForLiterals} is equivalent to {@code @QualfierForLiterals(LiteralKind.ALL)}
 */
@Documented
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Target(ElementType.ANNOTATION_TYPE)
public @interface QualifierForLiterals {
  /**
   * The kinds of literals whose types have this qualifier. For example, if {@code @MyAnno} is
   * meta-annotated with {@code @QualifierForLiterals(LiteralKind.STRING)}, then a literal {@code
   * String} constant such as {@code "hello world"} has type {@code @MyAnno String}, but occurrences
   * of {@code String} in the source code are not affected.
   *
   * <p>For String literals, also see the {@link #stringPatterns} annotation element/field.
   */
  LiteralKind[] value() default {};

  /**
   * A string literal that matches any of these patterns has this qualifier.
   *
   * <p>If patterns for multiple qualifers match, then the string literal is given the greatest
   * lower bound of all the matches.
   */
  String[] stringPatterns() default {};
}