How can you escape the @ character in javadoc?

How can I escape the @ symbol in javadoc? I am trying to use it inside a {@code} tag, which is inside <pre> tags.

I already tried the html escape @ sequence, but that didn't work.

Use the {@literal} javadoc tag:

/**
 * This is an "at" symbol: {@literal @}
 */

The javadoc for this will read:

This is an "at" symbol: @

Of course, this will work for any characters, and is the "officially supported" way of displaying any "special" characters.

It is also the most straighforward - you don't need to know the hex code of the character, and you can read what you've typed!

Just write it as an HTML entity:

@

From the document "javadoc - The Java API Documentation Generator"

> If you want to start a line with the @ character and not have it be interpreted, use the HTML entity @.

This implies that you can use HTML entities for any character that you would need to escape, and indeed you can:

> The text must be written in HTML with HTML entities and HTML tags. You can use whichever version of HTML your browser supports. The standard doclet generates HTML 3.2-compliant code elsewhere (outside of the documentation comments) with the inclusion of cascading style sheets and frames. HTML 4.0 is preferred for generated files because of the frame sets. > > For example, entities for the less than symbol (<) and the greater than symbol (>) should be written as < and >. Similarly, the ampersand (&) should be written as &.

my solution is

/**
 * Mapper Test Helper.
 *
 * add the following annotations above the class
 * <pre>{@code
 * // junit5
 * @literal @ExtendWith(SpringExtension.class)
 * // junit4
 * @literal @RunWith(SpringRunner.class)
 * }</pre>
 */
 

You got the general idea, try using the octal representation: @

Fixed in javadoc tool from 15.0.2

This issue now appears to be fixed when using javadoc tool from 15.0.2.

That is, we no longer need to escape the @ character when using javadoc multiline {@code ... } block.

There is a JDK bug logged https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8130754 ... which is currently not marked as fixed but it no longer reproduces with javadoc 15.0.2.