@Lookup : Annotation In Spring

Introduction :

@Lookup tells spring to return the instance of the return type of method.
In other words whatever be the return type of method, it's instance will be returned.

Use case :

In situations where a prototype bean needs to be injected in a singleton @Autowired won't work.
In such situations @Lookup is helpful.

Example :

Suppose we have a prototype bean shown below.

@Component @Scope("Prototype") public class CheckPrototype{ //Some Code }

If we want above bean in some singleton class then instead of @Autowired the below code will work.

@Lookup//to handle prototype in singleton public CheckPrototype getCheckPrototype() { // return new Instance }

Limitations :

1. @Lookup won't work for static, final and private fields

2. @Lookup wont work if the bean class is final.