Principal

public interface Principal

java.security.Principal

Known indirect subclasses

Group, GroupPrincipal, Identity, IdentityScope, Signer, UserPrincipal, X500Principal

Group	This interface was deprecated in API level 33. This class is deprecated and subject to removal in a future version of Java SE. It has been replaced by `java.security.Policy` and related classes since 1.2.
GroupPrincipal	A `UserPrincipal` representing a group identity, used to determine access rights to objects in a file system.
Identity	This class was deprecated in API level 3. This class is deprecated and subject to removal in a future version of Java SE. It has been replaced by `java.security.KeyStore`, the `java.security.cert` package, and `java.security.Principal`.
IdentityScope	This class was deprecated in API level 3. This class is deprecated and subject to removal in a future version of Java SE. It has been replaced by `java.security.KeyStore`, the `java.security.cert` package, and `java.security.Principal`.
Signer	This class was deprecated in API level 3. This class is deprecated and subject to removal in a future version of Java SE. It has been replaced by `java.security.KeyStore`, the `java.security.cert` package, and `java.security.Principal`.
UserPrincipal	A `Principal` representing an identity used to determine access rights to objects in a file system.
X500Principal	This class represents an X.500 `Principal`.

This interface represents the abstract notion of a principal, which can be used to represent any entity, such as an individual, a corporation, and a login id.

See also:

X509Certificate

Summary

Public methods
`abstract boolean`	`equals(Object another)` Compares this principal to the specified object.
`abstract String`	`getName()` Returns the name of this principal.
`abstract int`	`hashCode()` Returns a hashcode for this principal.
`default boolean`	`implies(Subject subject)` Returns true if the specified subject is implied by this principal.
`abstract String`	`toString()` Returns a string representation of this principal.

Public methods

equals

Added in API level 1

public abstract boolean equals (Object another)

Compares this principal to the specified object. Returns true if the object passed in matches the principal represented by the implementation of this interface.

Parameters
`another`	`Object`: principal to compare with.

Returns
`boolean`	true if the principal passed in is the same as that encapsulated by this principal, and false otherwise.

getName

Added in API level 1

public abstract String getName ()

Returns the name of this principal.

Returns
`String`	the name of this principal.

hashCode

Added in API level 1

public abstract int hashCode ()

Returns a hashcode for this principal.

Returns
`int`	a hashcode for this principal.

implies

Added in API level 26

public boolean implies (Subject subject)

Returns true if the specified subject is implied by this principal.

Implementation Requirements:

The default implementation of this method returns true if subject is non-null and contains at least one principal that is equal to this principal.
Subclasses may override this with a different implementation, if necessary.

Parameters
`subject`	`Subject`: the `Subject`

Returns
`boolean`	true if `subject` is non-null and is implied by this principal, or false otherwise.

toString

Added in API level 1

public abstract String toString ()

Returns a string representation of this principal.

Returns
`String`	a string representation of this principal.