001 /* ParameterizedType.java -- Represents parameterized types e.g. List<String> 002 Copyright (C) 2004, 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 003 004 This file is part of GNU Classpath. 005 006 GNU Classpath is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify 007 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by 008 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) 009 any later version. 010 011 GNU Classpath is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but 012 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of 013 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU 014 General Public License for more details. 015 016 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License 017 along with GNU Classpath; see the file COPYING. If not, write to the 018 Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 019 02110-1301 USA. 020 021 Linking this library statically or dynamically with other modules is 022 making a combined work based on this library. Thus, the terms and 023 conditions of the GNU General Public License cover the whole 024 combination. 025 026 As a special exception, the copyright holders of this library give you 027 permission to link this library with independent modules to produce an 028 executable, regardless of the license terms of these independent 029 modules, and to copy and distribute the resulting executable under 030 terms of your choice, provided that you also meet, for each linked 031 independent module, the terms and conditions of the license of that 032 module. An independent module is a module which is not derived from 033 or based on this library. If you modify this library, you may extend 034 this exception to your version of the library, but you are not 035 obligated to do so. If you do not wish to do so, delete this 036 exception statement from your version. */ 037 038 039 package java.lang.reflect; 040 041 /** 042 * <p> 043 * Represents a type which is parameterized over one or more other 044 * types. For example, <code>List<Integer></code> is a parameterized 045 * type, with <code>List</code> parameterized over the type 046 * <code>Integer</code>. 047 * </p> 048 * <p> 049 * Instances of this classes are created as needed, during reflection. 050 * On creating a parameterized type, <code>p</code>, the 051 * <code>GenericTypeDeclaration</code> corresponding to <code>p</code> 052 * is created and resolved. Each type argument of <code>p</code> 053 * is then created recursively; details of this process are availble 054 * in the documentation of <code>TypeVariable</code>. This creation 055 * process only happens once; repetition has no effect. 056 * </p> 057 * <p> 058 * Implementors of this interface must implement an appropriate 059 * <code>equals()</code> method. This method should equate any 060 * two instances of the implementing class that have the same 061 * <code>GenericTypeDeclaration</code> and <code>Type</code> 062 * parameters. 063 * 064 * @author Tom Tromey (tromey@redhat.com) 065 * @author Andrew John Hughes (gnu_andrew@member.fsf.org) 066 * @see GenericDeclaration 067 * @see TypeVariable 068 * @since 1.5 069 */ 070 public interface ParameterizedType 071 extends Type 072 { 073 074 /** 075 * <p> 076 * Returns an array of <code>Type</code> objects, which gives 077 * the parameters of this type. 078 * </p> 079 * <p> 080 * <strong>Note</code>: the returned array may be empty. This 081 * occurs if the supposed <code>ParameterizedType</code> is simply 082 * a normal type wrapped inside a parameterized type. 083 * </p> 084 * 085 * @return an array of <code>Type</code>s, representing the arguments 086 * of this type. 087 * @throws TypeNotPresentException if any of the types referred to by 088 * the parameters of this type do not actually exist. 089 * @throws MalformedParameterizedTypeException if any of the types 090 * refer to a type which can not be instantiated. 091 */ 092 Type[] getActualTypeArguments(); 093 094 /** 095 * Returns the type of which this type is a member. For example, 096 * in <code>Top<String>.Bottom<Integer></code>, 097 * <code>Bottom<Integer></code> is a member of 098 * <code>Top<String></code>, and so the latter is returned 099 * by this method. Calling this method on top-level types (such as 100 * <code>Top<String></code>) returns null. 101 * 102 * @return the type which owns this type. 103 * @throws TypeNotPresentException if the owner type referred to by 104 * this type do not actually exist. 105 * @throws MalformedParameterizedTypeException if the owner type 106 * referred to by this type can not be instantiated. 107 */ 108 Type getOwnerType(); 109 110 /** 111 * Returns a version of this type without parameters, which corresponds 112 * to the class or interface which declared the type. For example, 113 * the raw type corresponding to <code>List<Double></code> 114 * is <code>List</code>, which was declared by the <code>List</code> 115 * class. 116 * 117 * @return the raw variant of this type (i.e. the type without 118 * parameters). 119 */ 120 Type getRawType(); 121 122 }