Editing Annotation (section)

=== Java annotations ===
{{Main|Java annotation}}
A special case is the [[Java (programming language)|Java programming language]], where annotations can be used as a special form of syntactic [[metadata]] in the source code.<ref>{{cite web|url = http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/guide/language/annotations.html|title = JDK 5.0 Developer's Guide: Annotations|date = 2007-12-18|access-date = 2008-03-05|publisher = [[Sun Microsystems]]| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080306060928/http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/guide/language/annotations.html| archive-date= 6 March 2008 | url-status= live}}.</ref> Classes, methods, variables, parameters and packages may be annotated. The annotations can be embedded in [[class (file format)|class files]] generated by the compiler and may be retained by the [[Java virtual machine]] and thus influence the [[Run time (program lifecycle phase)|run-time]] behaviour of an application. It is possible to create meta-annotations out of the existing ones in Java.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Characterizing the Usage, Evolution and Impact of Java Annotations in Practice|title=Characterizing the Usage, Evolution and Impact of Java Annotations in Practice|url=https://hal.inria.fr/hal-02091516/document}}</ref>