Checking if an annotation is of a specific type

Question

I am using reflection to see if an annotation that is attached to a property of a class, is of a specific type. Current I am doing:

if("javax.validation.Valid".equals(annotation.annotationType().getName())) {    ... } 

Which strikes me as a little kludgey because it relies on a string that is a fully-qualified class-name. If the namespace changes in the future, this could cause subtle errors.

I would like to do:

if(Class.forName(annotation.annotationType().getName()).isInstance(      new javax.validation.Valid() )) {    ... } 

But javax.validation.Valid is an abstract class and cannot be instantiated. Is there a way to simulate instanceof (or basically use isInstance) against an interface or an abstract class?

Answer 1

Are you just looking for

if (annotation.annotationType().equals(javax.validation.Valid.class)){} 

?

Answer 2

Or even simpler:

if (annotation instanceof Valid) { /* ... */ }