Profiles in UML diagrams

A profile is a stereotyped package that contains Unified Modeling Language (UML) diagram elements that you can customize for a specific domain or purpose by using extension mechanisms, such as stereotypes.

A stereotype is a UML extension mechanism that broadens the UML vocabulary and gives more specific meaning to an artifact in a UML diagram.

Stereotypes do not change the underlying semantics of artifacts. For example, you can modify the appearance of a stereotype of a Java™ class by adding a decoration icon, a diagram element image-based icon, or text in double angle brackets (<<  >>), but the semantics of the class do not change. The class still has the same attributes, operations, and properties.

As the following figure illustrates, a stereotype is displayed as a name enclosed in double angle brackets (<<  >>). Some profile elements, such as stereotypes, enumerations, classes, and class and stereotype attributes, must be valid Java identifiers to avoid name collisions.

The image shows how a shape stereotype is represented in UML class diagrams.
Related concepts
UML shapes
Related tasks
Changing the default stereotype style for shapes
Changing the default stereotype style for compartments
Specifying the stereotype style for shapes
Specifying the stereotype style for compartments
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