You are given a code snippet representing a method belonging to the `AnnotationParser` class. This method is called `retrieveParsedResult` and is responsible for merging annotations.

The method has the following signature:
```
public Annotation retrieveParsedResult(Annotation existing) {
    ...
}
```

The `retrieveParsedResult` method takes in an `Annotation` object called `existing`, which was returned from another `AnnotationParser` instance before. It is important to note that multiple `<xs:annotation>` elements can be associated with one schema component, and this method is used to merge all those annotations.

Your task is to implement the `retrieveParsedResult` method to merge the `existing` annotation with the newly parsed annotation objects. The method should return the merged annotation object.
user
Sure, I can provide you with a Java-based implementation of the `retrieveParsedResult` method. However, I need to clarify that this is just one way to approach this task, and there could be multiple valid solutions depending on the requirements of your project.

Here's a simple implementation using a `HashMap` to merge the existing and parsed annotations:

```
public Annotation retrieveParsedResult(Annotation existing) {
    // Create a map to store the merged annotation objects
    Map<String, Object> mergedAnnotation = new HashMap<>();

    // Merge existing annotation elements
    if (existing != null) {
        mergedAnnotation.putAll(existing.getAnnotationProperties());
    }

    // Merge parsed annotation elements
    if (parsedAnnotation != null) {
        mergedAnnotation.putAll(parsedAnnotation.getAnnotationProperties());
    }

    // Create merged annotation with specified namespace and type
    Annotation merged = new Annotation(namespace, type);

    // Override exisiting elements
    merged.annotations = mergedAnnotation;

    return merged;
}
```

This implementation assumes that `parsedAnnotation` is the parsed annotation and that it doesn't have the same namespace and type as `existing` as those properties are not part of the merge operation. If that's not the case, you could modify this method accordingly.
assistant
You are given a code snippet representing a method belonging to the `AnnotationParser` class. This method is called `retrieveParsedResult` and is responsible for merging annotations.

The method has the following signature:
```
public Annotation retrieveParsedResult(Annotation existing) {
    ...
}
```

The `retrieveParsedResult` method takes in an `Annotation` object called `existing`, which was returned from another `AnnotationParser` instance before. It is important to note that multiple `<xs:annotation>` elements can be associated with one schema component, and this method is used to merge all those annotations.

Your task is to implement the `retrieveParsedResult` method to merge the `existing` annotation with the newly parsed annotation objects. The method should return the merged annotation object.
user
To merge the annotations, we can create a new `Annotation` object and combine the properties of the `existing` annotation and the newly parsed annotation. Here's an example implementation of the `retrieveParsedResult` method:

```java
import org.w3c.dom.Node;
import org.w3c.dom.NodeList;

public Annotation retrieveParsedResult(Annotation existing) {
    // Create a new Annotation object to store the merged data
    Annotation mergedAnnotation = new Annotation();

    // Merge the documentation elements
    NodeList existingDocNodes = existing.getDocumentation().getChildNodes();
    NodeList newDocNodes = this.getParsedAnnotation().getDocumentation().getChildNodes();
    for (int i = 0; i < existingDocNodes.getLength(); i++) {
        mergedAnnotation.getDocumentation().appendChild(existingDocNodes.item(i).cloneNode(true));
    }
    for (int i = 0; i < newDocNodes.getLength(); i++) {
        mergedAnnotation.getDocumentation().appendChild(newDocNodes.item(i).cloneNode(true));
    }

    // Merge the appinfo elements
    NodeList existingAppInfoNodes = existing.getAppinfo().getChildNodes();
    NodeList newAppInfoNodes = this.getParsedAnnotation().getAppinfo().getChildNodes();
    for (int i = 0; i < existingAppInfoNodes.getLength(); i++) {
        mergedAnnotation.getAppinfo().appendChild(existingAppInfoNodes.item(i).cloneNode(true));
    }
    for (int i = 0; i < newAppInfoNodes.getLength(); i++) {
        mergedAnnotation.getAppinfo().appendChild(newAppInfoNodes.item(i).cloneNode(true));
    }

    return mergedAnnotation;
}
```

This implementation assumes that the `Annotation` class has `getDocumentation()` and `getAppinfo()` methods that return the corresponding DOM `Node` objects for the `<xs:documentation>` and `<xs:appinfo>` elements of the annotation. The method iterates through the child nodes of both the existing and new annotation's `documentation` and `appinfo` elements, cloning them and appending the cloned nodes to the corresponding elements of the new `mergedAnnotation` object. Finally, the method returns the merged annotation object.
assistant