001 /* TypeVariable.java 002 Copyright (C) 2004 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 * This is a common interface for all type variables provided by 044 * the Java language. Instances are created the first time a type 045 * variable is needed by one of the reflective methods declared in 046 * this package. 047 * </p> 048 * <p> 049 * Creating a type variable requires resolving the appropriate type. 050 * This may involve resolving other classes as a side effect (e.g. 051 * if the type is nested inside other classes). Creation should not 052 * involve resolving the bounds. Repeated creation has no effect; an 053 * equivalent instance is returned. Caching is not required, but all 054 * instances must be <code>equal()</code> to each other. 055 * </p> 056 * 057 * @author Tom Tromey (tromey@redhat.com) 058 * @author Andrew John Hughes (gnu_andrew@member.fsf.org) 059 * @since 1.5 060 */ 061 public interface TypeVariable<T extends GenericDeclaration> extends Type 062 { 063 064 /** 065 * Returns an array of <code>Type</code> objects which represent the upper 066 * bounds of this type variable. There is always a default bound of 067 * <code>Object</code>. Any <code>ParameterizedType</code>s will be 068 * created as necessary, and other types resolved. 069 * 070 * @return an array of <code>Type</code> objects representing the upper 071 * bounds. 072 * @throws TypeNotPresentException if any of the bounds refer to a 073 * non-existant type. 074 * @throws MalformedParameterizedTypeException if the creation of a 075 * <code>ParameterizedType</code> fails. 076 */ 077 Type[] getBounds(); 078 079 080 /** 081 * Returns a representation of the declaration used to declare this 082 * type variable. 083 * 084 * @return the <code>GenericDeclaration</code> object for this type 085 * variable. 086 */ 087 T getGenericDeclaration(); 088 089 /** 090 * Returns the name of the type variable, as written in the source 091 * code. 092 * 093 * @return the name of the type variable. 094 */ 095 String getName(); 096 }