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* DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
*
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* 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.
*
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package com.sun.jdi;
import java.util.List;
/**
* Provides access to the class of an array and the type of
* its components in the target VM.
*
* @see ArrayReference
*
* @author Robert Field
* @author Gordon Hirsch
* @author James McIlree
* @since 1.3
*/
public interface ArrayType extends ReferenceType {
/**
* Creates a new instance of this array class in the target VM.
* The array is created with the given length and each component
* is initialized to is standard default value.
*
* @param length the number of components in the new array
* @return the newly created {@link ArrayReference} mirroring
* the new object in the target VM.
*
* @throws VMCannotBeModifiedException if the VirtualMachine is read-only - see {@link VirtualMachine#canBeModified()}.
*/
ArrayReference newInstance(int length);
/**
* Gets the JNI signature of the components of this
* array class. The signature
* describes the declared type of the components. If the components
* are objects, their actual type in a particular run-time context
* may be a subclass of the declared class.
*
* @return a string containing the JNI signature of array components.
*/
String componentSignature();
/**
* Returns a text representation of the component
* type of this array.
*
* @return a text representation of the component type.
*/
String componentTypeName();
/**
* Returns the component type of this array,
* as specified in the array declaration.
* <P>
* Note: The component type of a array will always be
* created or loaded before the array - see the
* <a href="http://java.sun.com/docs/books/vmspec/">Java Virtual
* Machine Specification</a>, section
* <a href="http://java.sun.com/docs/books/vmspec/2nd-edition/html/ConstantPool.doc.html#79473">5.3.3
* Creating Array Classes</a>.
* However, although the component type will be loaded it may
* not yet be prepared, in which case the type will be returned
* but attempts to perform some operations on the returned type
* (e.g. {@link ReferenceType#fields() fields()}) will throw
* a {@link ClassNotPreparedException}.
* Use {@link ReferenceType#isPrepared()} to determine if
* a reference type is prepared.
*
* @see Type
* @see Field#type() Field.type() - for usage examples
* @return the {@link Type} of this array's components.
*/
Type componentType() throws ClassNotLoadedException;
}