ChildListPropertyDescriptor.java

/*******************************************************************************
 * Copyright (c) 2004, 2008 IBM Corporation and others.
 * All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials
 * are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0
 * which accompanies this distribution, and is available at
 * http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html
 *
 * Contributors:
 *     IBM Corporation - initial API and implementation
 *******************************************************************************/
package org.eclipse.jdt.core.dom;

/**
 * Descriptor for a child list property of an AST node. A child list property is one whose value is
 * a list of {@link ASTNode}.
 * 
 * @see org.eclipse.jdt.core.dom.ASTNode#getStructuralProperty(StructuralPropertyDescriptor)
 * @since 3.0
 * @noinstantiate This class is not intended to be instantiated by clients.
 */
public final class ChildListPropertyDescriptor extends StructuralPropertyDescriptor {

	/**
	 * Element type. For example, for a node type like CompilationUnit, the "imports" property is
	 * ImportDeclaration.class.
	 * <p>
	 * Field is private, but marked package-visible for fast access from ASTNode.
	 * </p>
	 */
	final Class elementType;

	/**
	 * Indicates whether a cycle is possible.
	 * <p>
	 * Field is private, but marked package-visible for fast access from ASTNode.
	 * </p>
	 */
	final boolean cycleRisk;

	/**
	 * Creates a new child list property descriptor with the given property id. Note that this
	 * constructor is declared package-private so that property descriptors can only be created by
	 * the AST implementation.
	 * 
	 * @param nodeClass concrete AST node type that owns this property
	 * @param propertyId the property id
	 * @param elementType the element type of this property
	 * @param cycleRisk <code>true</code> if this property is at risk of cycles, and
	 *            <code>false</code> if there is no worry about cycles
	 */
	ChildListPropertyDescriptor(Class nodeClass, String propertyId, Class elementType, boolean cycleRisk) {
		super(nodeClass, propertyId);
		if (elementType == null) {
			throw new IllegalArgumentException();
		}
		this.elementType= elementType;
		this.cycleRisk= cycleRisk;
	}

	/**
	 * Returns the element type of this list property.
	 * <p>
	 * For example, for a node type like CompilationUnit, the "imports" property returns
	 * <code>ImportDeclaration.class</code>.
	 * </p>
	 * 
	 * @return the element type of the property
	 */
	public final Class getElementType() {
		return this.elementType;
	}

	/**
	 * Returns whether this property is vulnerable to cycles.
	 * <p>
	 * A property is vulnerable to cycles if a node of the owning type (that is, the type that owns
	 * this property) could legally appear in the AST subtree below this property. For example, the
	 * body property of a {@link MethodDeclaration} node admits a body which might include statement
	 * that embeds another {@link MethodDeclaration} node. On the other hand, the name property of a
	 * MethodDeclaration node admits only names, and thereby excludes another MethodDeclaration
	 * node.
	 * </p>
	 * 
	 * @return <code>true</code> if cycles are possible, and <code>false</code> if cycles are
	 *         impossible
	 */
	public final boolean cycleRisk() {
		return this.cycleRisk;
	}
}