java.lang.reflect.WildcardType Maven / Gradle / Ivy
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* contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with
* this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
* The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
* (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
* the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
*
* http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
*
* Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
* distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
* WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
* See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
* limitations under the License.
*/
package java.lang.reflect;
/**
* A pattern type, such as the upper bounded wildcard {@code
* ? extends Closeable} or the lower bounded wildcard {@code ? super String}.
*
* Although this interface permits an arbitrary number of upper and lower
* bounds, all wildcard types of Java language programs are in one of two forms:
*
* - No lower bound and one upper bound. Such types are
* written like {@code ? extends java.lang.Number}. When the upper bound is
* {@code java.lang.Object}, the {@code extends java.lang.Object} suffix is
* optional: {@code Set} is shorthand for {@code
* Set}.
*
- One lower bound and an upper bound of {@code
* java.lang.Object}. Such types are written like {@code
* ? super java.lang.String}.
*
*/
public interface WildcardType extends Type {
/**
* Returns the array of types that represent the upper bounds of this type.
* The default upper bound is {@code Object}.
*
* @return an array containing the upper bounds types
*
* @throws TypeNotPresentException
* if any of the bounds points to a missing type
* @throws MalformedParameterizedTypeException
* if any bound points to a type that cannot be instantiated for
* some reason
*/
Type[] getUpperBounds();
/**
* Returns the array of types that represent the lower bounds of this type.
* The default lower bound is {@code null}, in which case an empty array is
* returned. Since only one lower bound is allowed, the returned array's
* length will never exceed one.
*
* @return an array containing the lower bounds types
*
* @throws TypeNotPresentException
* if any of the bounds points to a missing type
* @throws MalformedParameterizedTypeException
* if any of the bounds points to a type that cannot be
* instantiated for some reason
*/
Type[] getLowerBounds();
}