/* * Copyright (c) 2003, 2015, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER. * * This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it * under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as * published by the Free Software Foundation. Oracle designates this * particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided * by Oracle in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code. * * This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License * version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that * accompanied this code). * * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version * 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, * Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA. * * Please contact Oracle, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood Shores, CA 94065 USA * or visit www.oracle.com if you need additional information or have any * questions. */ package java.lang.reflect; /** * TypeVariable is the common superinterface for type variables of kinds. * A type variable is created the first time it is needed by a reflective * method, as specified in this package. If a type variable t is referenced * by a type (i.e, class, interface or annotation type) T, and T is declared * by the nth enclosing class of T (see JLS 8.1.2), then the creation of t * requires the resolution (see JVMS 5) of the ith enclosing class of T, * for i = 0 to n, inclusive. Creating a type variable must not cause the * creation of its bounds. Repeated creation of a type variable has no effect. * *
Multiple objects may be instantiated at run-time to
* represent a given type variable. Even though a type variable is
* created only once, this does not imply any requirement to cache
* instances representing the type variable. However, all instances
* representing a type variable must be equal() to each other.
* As a consequence, users of type variables must not rely on the identity
* of instances of classes implementing this interface.
*
* @param For each upper bound B:
*
* @throws TypeNotPresentException if any of the
* bounds refers to a non-existent type declaration
* @throws MalformedParameterizedTypeException if any of the
* bounds refer to a parameterized type that cannot be instantiated
* for any reason
* @return an array of {@code Type}s representing the upper
* bound(s) of this type variable
*/
Type[] getBounds();
/**
* Returns the {@code GenericDeclaration} object representing the
* generic declaration declared this type variable.
*
* @return the generic declaration declared for this type variable.
*
* @since 1.5
*/
D getGenericDeclaration();
/**
* Returns the name of this type variable, as it occurs in the source code.
*
* @return the name of this type variable, as it appears in the source code
*/
String getName();
/**
* Returns an array of AnnotatedType objects that represent the use of
* types to denote the upper bounds of the type parameter represented by
* this TypeVariable. The order of the objects in the array corresponds to
* the order of the bounds in the declaration of the type parameter. Note that
* if no upper bound is explicitly declared, the upper bound is unannotated
* {@code Object}.
*
* @return an array of objects representing the upper bound(s) of the type variable
* @since 1.8
*/
AnnotatedType[] getAnnotatedBounds();
}