Eclipse JDT Plug-in Developer Guide (Galileo) - ChildPropertyDescriptor (Eclipse JDT API Specification)

Overview

Package

Class

Use

Tree

Deprecated

Index

Help

Eclipse JDT
Release 3.5

PREV CLASS NEXT CLASS

NO FRAMES

SUMMARY: NESTED | FIELD | CONSTR | METHOD

DETAIL: FIELD | CONSTR | METHOD

org.eclipse.jdt.core.dom
Class ChildPropertyDescriptor


java.lang.Object
  

org.eclipse.jdt.core.dom.StructuralPropertyDescriptor
      
org.eclipse.jdt.core.dom.ChildPropertyDescriptor

public final class ChildPropertyDescriptor
extends StructuralPropertyDescriptor
extends StructuralPropertyDescriptor

Descriptor for a child property of an AST node. A child property is one whose value is an ASTNode.

Since:: 3.0
See Also:: ASTNode.getStructuralProperty(StructuralPropertyDescriptor), ASTNode.setStructuralProperty(StructuralPropertyDescriptor, Object)
Restriction:: This class is not intended to be instantiated by clients.

Method Summary

boolean cycleRisk ()
          Returns whether this property is vulnerable to cycles.

Class getChildType ()
          Returns the child type of this property.

boolean isMandatory ()
          Returns whether this property is mandatory.

Methods inherited from class org.eclipse.jdt.core.dom. StructuralPropertyDescriptor

getId, getNodeClass, isChildListProperty, isChildProperty, isSimpleProperty, toString

Methods inherited from class java.lang. Object

clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, wait, wait, wait

Method Detail

getChildType

public final 
Class getChildType()

Returns the child type of this property.

For example, for a node type like CompilationUnit, the "package" property returns PackageDeclaration.class.

Returns:: the child type of the property

isMandatory

public final boolean isMandatory()

Returns whether this property is mandatory. A property value is not allowed to be null if it is mandatory.

Returns:: true if the property is mandatory, and false if it is may be null

cycleRisk

public final boolean cycleRisk()

Returns whether this property is vulnerable to cycles.

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 MethodDeclaration node admits a body which might include statement that embeds another MethodDeclaration node. On the other hand, the name property of a MethodDeclaration node admits only names, and thereby excludes another MethodDeclaration node.

Returns:: true if cycles are possible, and false if cycles are impossible