Usage of @deprecated with parameter type change in method definition

Question

I am creating a API for DB access.

Already there is one application using our API.In this case if I want to change the type of parameter from interface to the implementing type.

For example,

API version 1.0:

getDomain1Data(SearchBy searchBy,List<String> someList);

Can i change this to the below ? I want to ensure that the API user does not search domain1 data with another domain's table column name.

getDomain1Data(Domain1SearchBy searchBy,List<String> someList);

If I do this should I add deprecated to the first method and then add the second method or I can just replace the first method with the second one.

Thanks.

Answer 1

If there is already a app which uses your interface method it would be unwise to delete previous method. I would rather add getDomain1Data(Domain1SearchBy searchBy,List<String> someList); and add @Deprecated annotation to the previous one.

Sample code:

@Deprecated
static interface SearchBy {
}
static class Domain1SearchBy implements SearchBy {
}

static interface Api10 {
    void some(SearchBy a);
}
static interface Api11 extends Api10 {
    void some(Domain1SearchBy b);
}

static class Api10Impl implements Api10 {
    @Deprecated
    public void some(SearchBy a) {
        System.out.println("some searchby");
    }
}
static class Api11Impl extends Api10Impl implements Api11 {
    public void some(Domain1SearchBy b) {
        System.out.println("some domain1");
    }
}

public static void main(String[] args) {

    //with api 1.0
    Api10 api10 = new Api10Impl();
    api10.some(new SearchBy() {});
    api10.some(new Domain1SearchBy());

    //with api 1.1
    Api11 api11 = new Api11Impl();
    api11.some(new SearchBy() {});
    api11.some(new Domain1SearchBy());

}

Result:

some searchby
some searchby
some searchby
some domain1