# apiDefNote

The <apiDefNote> element provides an optional note element to expand the information about a part of the declared interface for the API item within the <apiDef> element.

#### Description

The <apiDefNote> element supports any phrase content other than <keyword>, <ph>, and <state> elements.

For example, in the Java API reference, you can provide an <apiDefNote> element about an exception thrown by a method.

#### Example

The following example shows a simple <apiDefNote> element for a Visual Basic property:

    <apiOperation>
           <apiOperationDetail>
               <apiSyntax>
                  Public ReadOnly Property Model As IRXEModel
               </apiSyntax>
               <apiReturnDef>
                  <apiReturnClassifier>IRXEModel</apiReturnClassifier>
                  <apiDefNote>
                       Returns the IRXEModel object to which the element belongs.
                  </apiDefNote>
               </apiReturnDef>
           </apiOperationDetail>
       </apiOperation>

- The following example shows a simple <apiDefNote> item for a VisualBasic method details.

    <apiReturnDef>
              <apiType name="type" value="function" />
              <apiQualifier name="access" value="public" />
              <apiReturnClassifier keyref=”String” />
              <apiDefNote>
                  Returns a string that specifies the stereotypes that can be associated
                  with the extensible element.
               </apiDefNote>
           </apiReturnDef>

- The following example shows a simple <apiDefNote> item for a Java method details.

    <javaExceptionDef>
         <javaExceptionClass  href=”///io/NullPointerException.html” format=”html” scope=”external”>
             NullPointerException</javaExceptionClass>
          <apiDefNote>Thrown if an error occured retrieving the manifest.</apiDefNote>
          </javaExceptionDef>

#### Contained by

apiClassifierDef, apiClassifierMember, apiConstructorDef, apiDef, apiDefItem, apiEvent, apiOperationDef, apiOperationDefItem, apiParam, apiReturn, apiSyntaxItem, apiValueDef, apiValueMember

#### Contains

apiname, b, boolean, cite, cmdname, codeph, draft-comment, filepath, fn, i, image, indexterm, indextermref, keyword, menucascade, msgnum, msgph, option, parmname, ph, q, required-cleanup, state, sub, sup, synph, systemoutput, term, tm, tt, u, uicontrol, userinput, varname, wintitle, xref

#### Content model

(text data or ph or codeph or synph or filepath or msgph or userinput or systemoutput or b or u or i or tt or sup or sub or uicontrol or menucascade or term or xref or cite or q or boolean or state or keyword or option or parmname or apiname or cmdname or msgnum or varname or wintitle or tm or image or draft-comment or required-cleanup or fn or indextermref or indexterm) (any number)

#### Inheritance

topic/ph reference/ph

Parent topic: apiSyntaxItem
Parent topic: apiDef
Parent topic: apiClassifierMember
Parent topic: apiClassifierDef
Parent topic: apiReturn
Parent topic: apiParam
Parent topic: apiEvent
Parent topic: apiOperationDefItem
Parent topic: apiOperationDef
Parent topic: apiConstructorDef
Parent topic: apiValueMember