Are there ways to modify existing code? Specifical...

# compiler

[ralf]

Are there ways to modify existing code? Specifically, I’m trying to remove an annotation from a class or to modify it:

// Original:
@MyAnnotation(values = ["a", "b"]
class MyClass

// Expected:
@MyAnnotation(values = ["a", "b", "c"]
class MyClass

I couldn’t find a hook to do this. I only found ways add a new annotation. Any pointers?

[shikasd]

Modification is the hardest I think
You can check arrow-meta Transform.replace or just do it on backend, depending on where you need those values.

[ralf]

Found it. So basically they leverage the AnalysisHandlerExtension, but I’m afraid to use that, because they rely on implementation details and this could easily break in the future. For the analysis you get access to the list of files files: Collection<KtFile> and they cast this to an ArrayList and then replace some of files for changing the source code. That’s scary in my opinion.