# Annotation Interface OptionalCandidate

@Documented @Target(METHOD) @Retention(SOURCE) public @interface OptionalCandidate
Marker annotation for methods which may return `java.util.Optional` in a future version. This is applied on some methods introduced at a time when Apache SIS was targeting Java 6 or 7. Replacing the return value by an `Optional` would be an incompatible change, so this change will not be applied in SIS 1.x. But it may be applied in SIS 2.0.

Note: the use of this annotation is not a guarantee that the annotated method will return `Optional` in SIS 2. It only means that this possibility is under consideration.

Since:
  1.3