@SuppressWarnings annotation causing compiler error

Question

Anyone know why it is illegal to put a @SuppressWarnings annotation as shown in this example? I know this is a retarded example, and that you could just place the annotation on the method instead of inline with the code, so I am not looking for alternatives. I am just curious why it is illegal in the place shown.
public class SuppressTest {
     public void addFoo(Object bar) {
          List list = (List<String>) bar;
          @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
          list.add("foo");
}

Answer 1

Here is the correct way, to solve this problem. Maybe this makes clear, why the other way is not supported. The @SuppressWarnings affects only the definition of list.
Anyway - you should be sure, that the cast, that is suppressed, is correct. And you cannot assure it in this special case, because everyone could call addFoo with nearly everything as parameter.
public class SuppressTest {
    public void addFoo(Object bar) {
     @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
     List<String> list = (List<String>) bar;
     list.add("foo");
}Edited by: yawah on 10.12.2009 07:58