XmlSeeAlso (Java Platform SE 8 )
Keywords: javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlSeeAlso class
Date: 2026-07-22

javax.xml.bind.annotation

## Annotation Type XmlSeeAlso

-     @Target(value=TYPE)
       @Retention(value=RUNTIME)
      public @interface XmlSeeAlso

  Instructs JAXB to also bind other classes when binding this class.

  Java makes it impractical/impossible to list all sub-classes of a given class. This often gets in a way of JAXB users, as it JAXB cannot automatically list up the classes that need to be known to `JAXBContext`.

  For example, with the following class definitions:

       class Animal {}
       class Dog extends Animal {}
       class Cat extends Animal {}

  The user would be required to create `JAXBContext` as `JAXBContext.newInstance(Dog.class,Cat.class)` (`Animal` will be automatically picked up since `Dog` and `Cat` refers to it.)

  `XmlSeeAlso` annotation would allow you to write:

       @XmlSeeAlso({Dog.class,Cat.class})
       class Animal {}
       class Dog extends Animal {}
       class Cat extends Animal {}

  This would allow you to do `JAXBContext.newInstance(Animal.class)`. By the help of this annotation, JAXB implementations will be able to correctly bind `Dog` and `Cat`.

  Since:
    JAXB2.1

- - ### Required Element Summary

    Required Elements
    Modifier and Type | Required Element and Description
    --- | ---
    `Class[]` | `value`

- - ### Element Detail

    - #### value

          public abstract Class[] value

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