Can't find @Nullable inside javax.annotation.*

Question

I want use @Nullable annotation to eliminate NullPointerExceptions. I found some tutorials on the net, I noticed that this annotation comes from the package javax.annotation.Nullable; but when I import it a compilation error is generated: cannot find symbol

score 199 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 30 '19 at 15:28

199

You need to include a jar that this class exists in. You can find it here

If using Maven, you can add the following dependency declaration:

<dependency>
  <groupId>com.google.code.findbugs</groupId>
  <artifactId>jsr305</artifactId>
  <version>3.0.2</version>
</dependency>

and for Gradle:

dependencies {
  testImplementation 'com.google.code.findbugs:jsr305:3.0.2'
}

edited Jun 30 '19 at 15:28

Jared Burrows

54,294
25
151
185

answered Sep 26 '13 at 14:38

David

19,577
28
108
128

114

Why is Google (especially its findbugs artifact) providing types that belong to the `javax` package? Isn't there an artifact with a `javax`-prefixed groupId that provides this type? – Andrew Swan Apr 22 '16 at 04:02
14

@AndrewSwan it seems that the author chose the groupId of `com.google.code.findbugs` because it was being hosted on Google's code hosting solution – matt b Jan 03 '17 at 17:11
7

Google-findbugs is the reference implementation of the jsr305, thus they are kind of allowed to use the javax-packageName I guess. – icyerasor Dec 12 '19 at 13:36
9

Still relevant for swagger generator – Markiian Benovskyi Dec 09 '20 at 11:08
1

I am receiving this error since I upgraded my IntelliJ. damn it. – Mehraj Malik Oct 18 '21 at 07:00
Same issue here, have you found a solution @MehrajMalik? – Sven Jun 27 '22 at 09:20

jan · Answer 2 · 2018-04-12T07:48:11.417

40

The artifact has been moved from net.sourceforge.findbugs to

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.google.code.findbugs</groupId>
    <artifactId>jsr305</artifactId>
    <version>3.0.0</version>
</dependency>

edited Apr 12 '18 at 07:48

answered Jul 18 '14 at 12:24

jan

2,741
4
35
56

mkobit · Answer 3 · 2015-11-18T15:19:35.507

30

If you are using Gradle, you could include the dependency like this:

repositories {
    mavenCentral()
}

dependencies {
    compile group: 'com.google.code.findbugs', name: 'jsr305', version: '3.0.0'
}

edited Nov 18 '15 at 15:19

answered Jun 01 '15 at 07:03

mkobit

43,979
12
156
150

1

I tried , and got error: Could not find method compile() for arguments [{group=com.google.code.findbugs, name=jsr305, version=3.0.0}] on org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.dsl.dependencies.DefaultDependencyHandler_Decorated@7b35fdf2. – kamal Jul 01 '16 at 17:54
@kamal with the above example, it is generally assuming you have applied the `'java'` (or other) plugin that has already created the [`compile` configuration](https://docs.gradle.org/current/userguide/java_plugin.html#sec:java_plugin_and_dependency_management). – mkobit Nov 15 '16 at 17:08
Unable to import javax.annotation.Nullable; I have jsr250-api-1.0.jar in my classpath. I even tried updating maven pom ` com.google.code.findbugs jsr305 3.0.0 ` Eclipse gave errors: Missing artifact `com.google.code.findbugs:jsr305:jar:3.0.0 Failure to transfer com.google.code.findbugs:jsr305:jar:3.0.0` – Sam-T Jan 12 '17 at 19:12
It finally worked jsr305-3.0.1.jar - some eclipse cp issue. Yes finally it compiles after external jar import into eclipse – Sam-T Jan 12 '17 at 19:53
Because the jar is not needed at runtime, use `compileOnly group...` instead of just `compile group...` – Renato Mar 10 '18 at 09:14
But is it really *not* needed at runtime? The RetentionPolicy of the @Nullable annotation is set to RUNTIME after all. As the jsr305.jar only includes annotations / interfac-defs the impact on your bundled jar is negligible. – icyerasor Dec 12 '19 at 13:38

score 17 · Answer 4 · answered Dec 23 '20 at 12:44

JSR-305 is a "Java Specification Request" to extend the specification. @Nullable etc. were part of it; however it appears to be "dormant" (or frozen) ever since (See this SO question). So to use these annotations, you have to add the library yourself.

FindBugs was renamed to SpotBugs and is being developed under that name.

For maven this is the current annotation-only dependency (other integrations here):

<dependency>
  <groupId>com.github.spotbugs</groupId>
  <artifactId>spotbugs-annotations</artifactId>
  <version>4.2.0</version>
</dependency>

If you wish to use the full plugin, refer to the documentation of SpotBugs.

The `spotbugs-annotations` module has a compile dependency ` com.google.code.findbugs jsr305 3.0.2 `, see https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/com.github.spotbugs/spotbugs-annotations/4.7.1 . Thus, if you need only the `@Nullable`, it is better to use directly the google findbugs dependency. — Julien Kronegg, Aug 17 '22 at 11:06

score 8 · Answer 5 · answered May 12 '16 at 10:13

8

In case someone has this while trying to compile an Android project, there is an alternative Nullable implementation in android.support.annotation.Nullable. So take care which package you've referenced in your imports.

answered May 12 '16 at 10:13

Janis Peisenieks

4,938
10
55
85

score 5 · Answer 6 · answered Jan 23 '18 at 20:09

5

If anyone has this issue when building a Maven project created in IntelliJ IDEA externally, I used the following dependency instead of the answer:

<dependency>
  <groupId>org.jetbrains</groupId>
  <artifactId>annotations</artifactId>
  <version>15.0</version>
</dependency>

Using this will allow the project to build on IntelliJ IDEA and by itself using Maven.

You can find it here.

answered Jan 23 '18 at 20:09

crawton

199
1
5

5

beware that `org.jetbrains:annotations:15.0` provides `@org.jetbrains.annotations.Nullable` not `@javax.annotation.Generated`. This could be a problem in case you use some code generators as `openapi-generator-maven-plugin`. – danidemi Jan 29 '20 at 15:11

score 4 · Answer 7 · answered Jan 02 '19 at 05:17

4

you can add latest version of this by adding following line inside your gradle.build.

implementation group: 'com.google.code.findbugs', name: 'jsr305', version: '3.0.2'

answered Jan 02 '19 at 05:17

Jay Dangar

3,271
1
16
35

score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Nov 20 '17 at 23:13

2

I am using Guava which has annotation included:

(Gradle code )

compile 'com.google.guava:guava:23.4-jre'

answered Nov 20 '17 at 23:13

John Tribe

1,407
14
26

Including Guava for just for this would be overkill, and to be avoided due to their poor versioning and tendency to make backwards-incompatible changes. – Matthew Read Dec 03 '20 at 17:37
@Matthew Read Guava shouldn't be avoided. There are features that aren't in plain Java - immutable collections(well it is in java >=9, but this one is better), mapMakers, splitters ....and so on. I think that adding guava brings good stuff. Maybe it is overkill just for this, but still it is better than using "findbugs"or "jetbrains" annotations. – John Tribe Dec 10 '20 at 08:02
2

I agree that Guava can be useful for other things, but that doesn't mean that it makes sense to bring in a large library for something tiny. `com.google.code.findbugs:jsr305` is named poorly, but it is the official reference implementation. – Matthew Read Dec 15 '20 at 20:57

score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Oct 08 '18 at 07:32

1

In the case of Android projects, you can fix this error by changing the project/module gradle file (build.gradle) as follows:

dependencies { implementation 'com.android.support:support-annotations:24.2.0' }

For more informations, please refer here.

answered Oct 08 '18 at 07:32

KPandian

1,148
9
8

score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Apr 18 '22 at 11:16

1

For gradle build I used compile('com.google.code.findbugs:jsr305:3.0.2') . In case of test can use testCompile('com.google.code.findbugs:jsr305:3.0.2').

answered Apr 18 '22 at 11:16

Dinushika Rathnayake

289
4
9

Can't find @Nullable inside javax.annotation.*

10 Answers10

Linked