package org.eclipse.jdt.debug.core;

/*
 * (c) Copyright IBM Corp. 2000, 2001.
 * All Rights Reserved.
 */

import org.eclipse.debug.core.DebugException;

/**
 * The type of an array on a Java debug target.
 * <p>
 * Clients are not intended to implement this interface.
 * </p>
 * @see IJavaValue
 * @since 2.0
 */

public interface IJavaArrayType extends IJavaType {

	/**
	 * Returns a new instance of an array of this type,
	 * with the specified length.
	 *
	 * @param size the length of the new array
	 * @return a new array of the specified length
	 * @exception DebugException if this method fails. Reasons include:<ul>
	 * <li>Failure communicating with the VM.  The DebugException's
	 * status code contains the underlying exception responsible for
	 * the failure.</li>
	 * </ul>
	 */
	public IJavaArray newInstance(int size) throws DebugException;

	/**
	 * Returns the type of the elements in this array.
	 *
	 * @return type
	 * @exception DebugException if this method fails. Reasons include:<ul>
	 * <li>Failure communicating with the VM. The exception's
	 * status code contains the underlying exception responsible for
	 * the failure.</li>
	 * </ul>
	 */
	public IJavaType getComponentType() throws DebugException;

	/**
	 * Returns the class object associated with this array type.
	 *
	 * @return the class object associated with this array type
	 * @exception DebugException if this method fails.  Reasons include:
	 * <ul><li>Failure communicating with the VM.  The DebugException's
	 * status code contains the underlying exception responsible for
	 * the failure.</li>
	 * </ul>
	 * @since 2.1
	 */
	public IJavaClassObject getClassObject() throws DebugException;
}