IField.java

/*******************************************************************************
 * Copyright (c) 2000, 2010 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
 *     IBM Corporation - added J2SE 1.5 support
 *******************************************************************************/
package org.eclipse.jdt.core;

/**
 * Represents a field declared in a type.
 * 
 * @noimplement This interface is not intended to be implemented by clients.
 */
public interface IField extends IMember, IAnnotatable {

	/**
	 * Returns the constant value associated with this field or <code>null</code> if this field has
	 * none. The field needs to be static and final to have a constant value. Returns an instance of
	 * the wrapper type corresponding to the the type of the field.
	 * <table border="1">
	 * <tr>
	 * <th>field type</th>
	 * <th>wrapper type</th>
	 * </tr>
	 * <tr>
	 * <td>int</td>
	 * <td>java.lang.Integer</td>
	 * </tr>
	 * <tr>
	 * <td>byte</td>
	 * <td>java.lang.Byte</td>
	 * </tr>
	 * <tr>
	 * <td>boolean</td>
	 * <td>java.lang.Boolean</td>
	 * </tr>
	 * <tr>
	 * <td>char</td>
	 * <td>java.lang.Character</td>
	 * </tr>
	 * <tr>
	 * <td>double</td>
	 * <td>java.lang.Double</td>
	 * </tr>
	 * <tr>
	 * <td>float</td>
	 * <td>java.lang.Float</td>
	 * </tr>
	 * <tr>
	 * <td>long</td>
	 * <td>java.lang.Long</td>
	 * </tr>
	 * <tr>
	 * <td>short</td>
	 * <td>java.lang.Short</td>
	 * </tr>
	 * <tr>
	 * <td>java.lang.String</td>
	 * <td>java.lang.String</td>
	 * </tr>
	 * </table>
	 * 
	 * @return the constant value associated with this field or <code>null</code> if this field has
	 *         none.
	 * @exception JavaModelException if this element does not exist or if an exception occurs while
	 *                accessing its corresponding resource
	 */
	public Object getConstant() throws JavaModelException;

	/**
	 * Returns the simple name of this field.
	 * 
	 * @return the simple name of this field.
	 */
	String getElementName();

	/**
	 * Returns the binding key for this field only if the given field is {@link #isResolved()
	 * resolved}. A binding key is a key that uniquely identifies this field. It allows access to
	 * generic info for parameterized fields.
	 * 
	 * <p>
	 * If the given field is not resolved, the returned key is simply the java element's key.
	 * </p>
	 * 
	 * @return the binding key for this field
	 * @see org.eclipse.jdt.core.dom.IBinding#getKey()
	 * @see BindingKey
	 * @see #isResolved()
	 * @since 3.1
	 */
	String getKey();

	/**
	 * Returns the type signature of this field. For enum constants, this returns the signature of
	 * the declaring enum class.
	 * <p>
	 * The type signature may be either unresolved (for source types) or resolved (for binary
	 * types), and either basic (for basic types) or rich (for parameterized types). See
	 * {@link Signature} for details.
	 * </p>
	 * 
	 * @return the type signature of this field
	 * @exception JavaModelException if this element does not exist or if an exception occurs while
	 *                accessing its corresponding resource
	 * @see Signature
	 */
	String getTypeSignature() throws JavaModelException;

	/**
	 * Returns whether this field represents an enum constant.
	 * 
	 * @return whether this field represents an enum constant
	 * @exception JavaModelException if this element does not exist or if an exception occurs while
	 *                accessing its corresponding resource
	 * @since 3.1
	 */
	boolean isEnumConstant() throws JavaModelException;

	/**
	 * Returns whether this field represents a resolved field. If a field is resolved, its key
	 * contains resolved information.
	 * 
	 * @return whether this field represents a resolved field.
	 * @since 3.1
	 */
	boolean isResolved();

}