Modify a class definition’s annotation string parameter at runtime

Warning: Not tested on OSX – see comment from @Marcel

Tested on OSX. Works fine.

Since I also had the need to change annotation values at runtime, I revisited this question.

Here is a modified version of @assylias approach (many thanks for the inspiration).

/**
 * Changes the annotation value for the given key of the given annotation to newValue and returns
 * the previous value.
 */
@SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
public static Object changeAnnotationValue(Annotation annotation, String key, Object newValue){
    Object handler = Proxy.getInvocationHandler(annotation);
    Field f;
    try {
        f = handler.getClass().getDeclaredField("memberValues");
    } catch (NoSuchFieldException | SecurityException e) {
        throw new IllegalStateException(e);
    }
    f.setAccessible(true);
    Map<String, Object> memberValues;
    try {
        memberValues = (Map<String, Object>) f.get(handler);
    } catch (IllegalArgumentException | IllegalAccessException e) {
        throw new IllegalStateException(e);
    }
    Object oldValue = memberValues.get(key);
    if (oldValue == null || oldValue.getClass() != newValue.getClass()) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException();
    }
    memberValues.put(key,newValue);
    return oldValue;
}

Usage example:

@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Target(ElementType.TYPE)
public @interface ClassAnnotation {
  String value() default "";
}
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Target(ElementType.FIELD)
public @interface FieldAnnotation {
  String value() default "";
}
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Target(ElementType.METHOD)
public @interface MethodAnnotation {
  String value() default "";
}
@ClassAnnotation("class test")
public static class TestClass{
    @FieldAnnotation("field test")
    public Object field;
    @MethodAnnotation("method test")
    public void method(){

    }
}

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
    final ClassAnnotation classAnnotation = TestClass.class.getAnnotation(ClassAnnotation.class);
    System.out.println("old ClassAnnotation = " + classAnnotation.value());
    changeAnnotationValue(classAnnotation, "value", "another class annotation value");
    System.out.println("modified ClassAnnotation = " + classAnnotation.value());

    Field field = TestClass.class.getField("field");
    final FieldAnnotation fieldAnnotation = field.getAnnotation(FieldAnnotation.class);
    System.out.println("old FieldAnnotation = " + fieldAnnotation.value());
    changeAnnotationValue(fieldAnnotation, "value", "another field annotation value");
    System.out.println("modified FieldAnnotation = " + fieldAnnotation.value());

    Method method = TestClass.class.getMethod("method");
    final MethodAnnotation methodAnnotation = method.getAnnotation(MethodAnnotation.class);
    System.out.println("old MethodAnnotation = " + methodAnnotation.value());
    changeAnnotationValue(methodAnnotation, "value", "another method annotation value");
    System.out.println("modified MethodAnnotation = " + methodAnnotation.value());
}

The advantage of this approach is, that one does not need to create a new annotation instance. Therefore one doesn’t need to know the concrete annotation class in advance. Also the side effects should be minimal since the original annotation instance stays untouched.

Tested with Java 8.