org.omg.CORBA: abstract public class: TypeCode

org.omg.CORBA
abstract public class: TypeCode [javadoc | source]

java.lang.Object
   org.omg.CORBA.TypeCode

All Implemented Interfaces:
IDLEntity

Direct Known Subclasses:
TypeCodeImpl

A container for information about a specific CORBA data type.

TypeCode objects are used:

in the Dynamic Invocation Interface -- to indicate the types of the actual arguments or the type of the return value.
NamedValue objects are used to represent arguments and return values. One of their components is an Any object, which in turn has as one of its components a TypeCode object.
by an Interface Repository to represent the type specifications that are part of many OMG IDL declarations

The representation of a TypeCode object is opaque, but abstractly, a TypeCode object consists of:

a kind field, which is set to an instance of the class TCKind
zero or more additional fields appropriate for the particular kind. For example, the TypeCode object describing the OMG IDL type 1ong has kind TCKind.tk_long and no additional fields. The TypeCode describing OMG IDL type sequence<boolean, 10> has a kind field with the value TCKind.tk_sequence and also fields with the values boolean and 10 for the type of sequence elements and the length of the sequence.

TypeCode objects can be obtained in various ways:

from a call to the method Any.insert_X, where X is a basic IDL type. This method creates a TypeCode object for type X and assigns it to the Any object's type field.
from invocations of methods in the ORB class
For example, the following creates a TypeCode object for a string with a maximum of 30 characters:
```
org.omg.CORBA.TypeCode tcString = orb.create_string_tc(30);
```
The following creates a TypeCode object for an array of five strings:
```
org.omg.CORBA.TypeCode tcArray = orb.create_array_tc(
5, TCKind.tk_string);
```
The following creates a TypeCode object for an interface named "Account":
```
org.omg.CORBA.TypeCode tcInterface = orb.create_interface_tc(
"thisId", "Account");
```
as the return value from the _type method in Holder classes for user-defined IDL types. These Holder classes are generated by the idltojava compiler.
from a CORBA Interface Repository

Most of the methods in the class TypeCode are accessors, and the information contained in a TypeCode object is specific to a particular type. Therefore, methods must be invoked only on the kind of type codes to which they apply. If an accessor method tries to access information from an inappropriate kind of type code, it will throw the exception TypeCodePackage.BadKind. For example, if the method discriminator_type is called on anything other than a union, it will throw BadKind because only unions have a discriminator. The following list shows which methods apply to which kinds of type codes:

These methods may be invoked on all TypeCode kinds:

equal
kind

These methods may be invoked on objref, struct, union, enum, alias, exception, value, value_box, native, and abstract_interface:

id
name

These methods may be invoked on struct, union, enum, and exception:

member_count
member_name

These methods may be invoked on struct, union, and exception:

member_type(int index)

These methods may be invoked on union:

member_label
discriminator_type
default_index

These methods may be invoked on string, sequence, and array:

length

These methods may be invoked on alias, sequence, array, and value_box:

content_type

Unlike other CORBA pseudo-objects, TypeCode objects can be passed as general IDL parameters.

The methods parameter and param_count, which are deprecated, are not mapped.

Java IDL extends the CORBA specification to allow all operations permitted on a struct TypeCode to be permitted on an exception TypeCode as well.

Method from org.omg.CORBA.TypeCode Summary:
concrete_base_type, content_type, default_index, discriminator_type, equal, equivalent, fixed_digits, fixed_scale, get_compact_typecode, id, kind, length, member_count, member_label, member_name, member_type, member_visibility, name, type_modifier
Methods from java.lang.Object:
equals, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait
Method from org.omg.CORBA.TypeCode Detail:

abstract public TypeCode concrete_base_type() throws BadKind
Returns the TypeCode object that describes the concrete base type of the value type that this TypeCode object describes. Returns null if it doesn't have a concrete base type.
abstract public TypeCode content_type() throws BadKind
Returns the TypeCode object representing the IDL type for the members of the object described by this TypeCode object. For sequences and arrays, it returns the element type. For aliases, it returns the original type. Note that multidimensional arrays are represented by nesting TypeCode objects, one per dimension. For boxed valuetypes, it returns the boxed type.
The method content_type can be invoked on sequence, array, alias, and boxed valuetype TypeCode objects.
abstract public int default_index() throws BadKind
Returns the index of the default member, or -1 if there is no default member.
The method default_index can be invoked only on union TypeCode objects.
abstract public TypeCode discriminator_type() throws BadKind
Returns a TypeCode object describing all non-default member labels. The method discriminator_type can be invoked only on union TypeCode objects.
abstract public boolean equal(TypeCode tc)
Compares this TypeCode object with the given one, testing for equality. TypeCode objects are equal if they are interchangeable and give identical results when TypeCode operations are applied to them.
abstract public boolean equivalent(TypeCode tc)
Tests to see if the given TypeCode object is equivalent to this TypeCode object.
abstract public short fixed_digits() throws BadKind
Returns the number of digits in the fixed type described by this TypeCode object. For example, the typecode for the number 3000.275d could be fixed<7,3>, where 7 is the precision and 3 is the scale.
abstract public short fixed_scale() throws BadKind
Returns the scale of the fixed type described by this TypeCode object. A positive number indicates the number of digits to the right of the decimal point. For example, the number 3000d could have the typecode fixed<4,0>, where the first number is the precision and the second number is the scale. A negative number is also possible and adds zeroes to the left of the decimal point. In this case, fixed<1,-3>, could be the typecode for the number 3000d.
abstract public TypeCode get_compact_typecode()
Strips out all optional name and member name fields, but leaves all alias typecodes intact.
abstract public String id() throws BadKind
Retrieves the RepositoryId globally identifying the type of this TypeCode object.
The method id can be invoked on object reference, structure, union, enumeration, alias, exception, valuetype, boxed valuetype, native, and abstract interface type codes. Object reference, exception, valuetype, boxed valuetype, native, and abstract interface TypeCode objects always have a RepositoryId. Structure, union, enumeration, and alias TypeCode objects obtained from the Interface Repository or the method ORB.create_operation_list also always have a RepositoryId. If there is no RepositoryId, the method can return an empty string.
abstract public TCKind kind()
Retrieves the kind of this TypeCode object. The kind of a type code determines which TypeCode methods may legally be invoked on it.
The method kind may be invoked on any TypeCode object.
abstract public int length() throws BadKind
Returns the number of elements in the type described by this TypeCode object. For strings and sequences, it returns the bound, with zero indicating an unbounded string or sequence. For arrays, it returns the number of elements in the array.
The method length can be invoked on string, sequence, and array TypeCode objects.
abstract public int member_count() throws BadKind
Retrieves the number of members in the type described by this TypeCode object.
The method member_count can be invoked on structure, union, and enumeration TypeCode objects. Java IDL extends the CORBA specification to allow this method to operate on exceptions as well.
abstract public Any member_label(int index) throws BadKind, Bounds
Retrieves the label of the union member identified by the given index. For the default member, the label is the zero octet.
The method member_label can only be invoked on union TypeCode objects.
abstract public String member_name(int index) throws BadKind, Bounds
Retrieves the simple name of the member identified by the given index. Since names are local to a Repository, the name returned from a TypeCode object may not match the name of the member in any particular Repository, and may even be an empty string.
The method member_name can be invoked on structure, union, and enumeration TypeCode objects. Java IDL extends the CORBA specification to allow this method to operate on exceptions as well.
abstract public TypeCode member_type(int index) throws BadKind, Bounds
Retrieves the TypeCode object describing the type of the member identified by the given index.
The method member_type can be invoked on structure and union TypeCode objects. Java IDL extends the CORBA specification to allow this method to operate on exceptions as well.
abstract public short member_visibility(int index) throws BadKind, Bounds
Returns the constant that indicates the visibility of the member at the given index. This operation can only be invoked on non-boxed value TypeCode objects.
abstract public String name() throws BadKind
Retrieves the simple name identifying this TypeCode object within its enclosing scope. Since names are local to a Repository, the name returned from a TypeCode object may not match the name of the type in any particular Repository, and may even be an empty string.
The method name can be invoked on object reference, structure, union, enumeration, alias, exception, valuetype, boxed valuetype, native, and abstract interface TypeCode objects.
abstract public short type_modifier() throws BadKind
Returns a constant indicating the modifier of the value type that this TypeCode object describes. The constant returned must be one of the following: VM_NONE.value, VM_ABSTRACT.value, VM_CUSTOM.value, or VM_TRUNCATABLE.value,