/*
 * Copyright 2000-2013 JetBrains s.r.o.
 *
 * Licensed 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 com.intellij.psi;

import com.intellij.util.ArrayFactory;
import org.jetbrains.annotations.NotNull;
import org.jetbrains.annotations.Nullable;

/**
 * Represents the occurrence of a type in Java source code, for example, as a return
 * type of the method or the type of a method parameter.
 */
public interface PsiTypeElement extends PsiElement,PsiAnnotationOwner {
  /**
   * The empty array of PSI directories which can be reused to avoid unnecessary allocations.
   */
  PsiTypeElement[] EMPTY_ARRAY = new PsiTypeElement[0];

  ArrayFactory<PsiTypeElement> ARRAY_FACTORY = new ArrayFactory<PsiTypeElement>() {
    @NotNull
    @Override
    public PsiTypeElement[] create(final int count) {
      return count == 0 ? EMPTY_ARRAY : new PsiTypeElement[count];
    }
  };

  /**
   * Returns the type referenced by the type element.
   *
   * @return the referenced type.
   */
  @NotNull PsiType getType();

  /**
   * Returns the reference element pointing to the referenced type, or if the type element
   * is an array, the reference element for the innermost component type of the array.
   *
   * @return the referenced element instance, or null if the type element references
   * a primitive type.
   */
  @Nullable
  PsiJavaCodeReferenceElement getInnermostComponentReferenceElement();
}