net.sf.saxon.expr
Interface Expression

All Superinterfaces:

java.io.Serializable

All Known Implementing Classes:

ComputedExpression, PatternSponsor, Value

public interface Expression

extends java.io.Serializable

Interface supported by an XPath expression. This includes both compile-time and run-time methods.

Field Summary

static int	EVALUATE_METHOD
static int	ITERATE_METHOD
static int	PROCESS_METHOD

Method Summary

void	checkPermittedContents(SchemaType parentType, StaticContext env, boolean whole) Check statically that the results of the expression are capable of constructing the content of a given schema type.
void	display(int level, NamePool pool, java.io.PrintStream out) Diagnostic print of expression structure.
boolean	effectiveBooleanValue(XPathContext context) Get the effective boolean value of the expression.
java.lang.String	evaluateAsString(XPathContext context) Evaluate an expression as a String.
Item	evaluateItem(XPathContext context) Evaluate an expression as a single item.
int	getCardinality() Determine the static cardinality of the expression.
int	getDependencies() Determine which aspects of the context the expression depends on.
int	getImplementationMethod() An implementation of Expression must provide at least one of the methods evaluateItem(), iterate(), or process().
ItemType	getItemType(TypeHierarchy th) Determine the data type of the expression, if possible.
Container	getParentExpression() Get the container that immediately contains this expression.
int	getSpecialProperties() Get the static properties of this expression (other than its type).
SequenceIterator	iterate(XPathContext context) Return an Iterator to iterate over the values of a sequence.
java.util.Iterator	iterateSubExpressions() Get the immediate sub-expressions of this expression.
Expression	optimize(Optimizer opt, StaticContext env, ItemType contextItemType) Perform optimisation of an expression and its subexpressions.
void	process(XPathContext context) Process the instruction, without returning any tail calls
Expression	promote(PromotionOffer offer) Offer promotion for this subexpression.
Expression	simplify(StaticContext env) Simplify an expression.
Expression	typeCheck(StaticContext env, ItemType contextItemType) Perform type checking of an expression and its subexpressions.

Field Detail

EVALUATE_METHOD

public static final int EVALUATE_METHOD

See Also:

Constant Field Values

ITERATE_METHOD

public static final int ITERATE_METHOD

See Also:

Constant Field Values

PROCESS_METHOD

public static final int PROCESS_METHOD

See Also:

Constant Field Values

Method Detail

getImplementationMethod

public int getImplementationMethod()

An implementation of Expression must provide at least one of the methods evaluateItem(), iterate(), or process(). This method indicates which of these methods is provided directly. The other methods will always be available indirectly, using an implementation that relies on one of the other methods.

simplify

public Expression simplify(StaticContext env)
                    throws XPathException

Simplify an expression. This performs any static optimization (by rewriting the expression as a different expression). The default implementation does nothing.

Returns:

the simplified expression

Throws:

StaticError - if an error is discovered during expression rewriting

XPathException

typeCheck

public Expression typeCheck(StaticContext env,
                            ItemType contextItemType)
                     throws XPathException

Perform type checking of an expression and its subexpressions.

This checks statically that the operands of the expression have the correct type; if necessary it generates code to do run-time type checking or type conversion. A static type error is reported only if execution cannot possibly succeed, that is, if a run-time type error is inevitable. The call may return a modified form of the expression.

This method is called after all references to functions and variables have been resolved to the declaration of the function or variable. However, the types of such functions and variables may not be accurately known if they have not been explicitly declared.

Parameters:

env - the static context of the expression

contextItemType - the static type of "." at the point where this expression is invoked. The parameter is set to null if it is known statically that the context item will be undefined. If the type of the context item is not known statically, the argument is set to Type.ITEM_TYPE

Returns:

the original expression, rewritten to perform necessary run-time type checks, and to perform other type-related optimizations

Throws:

StaticError - if an error is discovered during this phase (typically a type error)

XPathException

optimize

public Expression optimize(Optimizer opt,
                           StaticContext env,
                           ItemType contextItemType)
                    throws XPathException

Perform optimisation of an expression and its subexpressions.

This method is called after all references to functions and variables have been resolved to the declaration of the function or variable, and after all type checking has been done.

Parameters:

opt - the optimizer in use. This provides access to supporting functions; it also allows different optimization strategies to be used in different circumstances.

env - the static context of the expression

contextItemType - the static type of "." at the point where this expression is invoked. The parameter is set to null if it is known statically that the context item will be undefined. If the type of the context item is not known statically, the argument is set to Type.ITEM_TYPE

Returns:

the original expression, rewritten if appropriate to optimize execution

Throws:

StaticError - if an error is discovered during this phase (typically a type error)

XPathException

promote

public Expression promote(PromotionOffer offer)
                   throws XPathException

Offer promotion for this subexpression. The offer will be accepted if the subexpression is not dependent on the factors (e.g. the context item) identified in the PromotionOffer. By default the offer is not accepted - this is appropriate in the case of simple expressions such as constant values and variable references where promotion would give no performance advantage. This method is always called at compile time.

Parameters:

offer - details of the offer, for example the offer to move expressions that don't depend on the context to an outer level in the containing expression

Returns:

if the offer is not accepted, return this expression unchanged. Otherwise return the result of rewriting the expression to promote this subexpression

Throws:

XPathException - if any error is detected

getSpecialProperties

public int getSpecialProperties()

Get the static properties of this expression (other than its type). The result is bit-signficant. These properties are used for optimizations. In general, if property bit is set, it is true, but if it is unset, the value is unknown.

Returns:

a set of flags indicating static properties of this expression

getCardinality

public int getCardinality()

Determine the static cardinality of the expression. This establishes how many items there will be in the result of the expression, at compile time (i.e., without actually evaluating the result.

This method should always return a result, though it may be the best approximation that is available at the time.

Returns:

one of the values StaticProperty.ALLOWS_ONE, StaticProperty.ALLOWS_ZERO_OR_MORE, StaticProperty.ALLOWS_ZERO_OR_ONE, StaticProperty.ALLOWS_ONE_OR_MORE, StaticProperty.EMPTY. This default implementation returns ZERO_OR_MORE (which effectively gives no information).

getItemType

public ItemType getItemType(TypeHierarchy th)

Determine the data type of the expression, if possible. All expression return sequences, in general; this method determines the type of the items within the sequence, assuming that (a) this is known in advance, and (b) it is the same for all items in the sequence.

This method should always return a result, though it may be the best approximation that is available at the time.

Parameters:

th -

Returns:

a value such as Type.STRING, Type.BOOLEAN, Type.NUMBER, Type.NODE, or Type.ITEM (meaning not known at compile time)

getDependencies

public int getDependencies()

Determine which aspects of the context the expression depends on. The result is a bitwise-or'ed value composed from constants such as StaticProperty.DEPENDS_ON_CONTEXT_ITEM and StaticProperty.DEPENDS_ON_CURRENT_ITEM. The default implementation combines the intrinsic dependencies of this expression with the dependencies of the subexpressions, computed recursively. This is overridden for expressions such as FilterExpression where a subexpression's dependencies are not necessarily inherited by the parent expression.

Returns:

a set of bit-significant flags identifying the dependencies of the expression

iterateSubExpressions

public java.util.Iterator iterateSubExpressions()

Get the immediate sub-expressions of this expression. Default implementation returns a zero-length array, appropriate for an expression that has no sub-expressions.

Returns:

an iterator containing the sub-expressions of this expression

getParentExpression

public Container getParentExpression()

Get the container that immediately contains this expression. This method returns null for an outermost expression; it also return null in the case of literal values. For an XPath expression occurring within an XSLT stylesheet, this method returns the XSLT instruction containing the XPath expression.

Returns:

the expression that contains this expression, if known; return null if there is no containing expression or if the containing expression is unknown.

evaluateItem

public Item evaluateItem(XPathContext context)
                  throws XPathException

Evaluate an expression as a single item. This always returns either a single Item or null (denoting the empty sequence). No conversion is done. This method should not be used unless the static type of the expression is a subtype of "item" or "item?": that is, it should not be called if the expression may return a sequence. There is no guarantee that this condition will be detected.

Parameters:

context - The context in which the expression is to be evaluated

Returns:

the node or atomic value that results from evaluating the expression; or null to indicate that the result is an empty sequence

Throws:

XPathException - if any dynamic error occurs evaluating the expression

iterate

public SequenceIterator iterate(XPathContext context)
                         throws XPathException

Return an Iterator to iterate over the values of a sequence. The value of every expression can be regarded as a sequence, so this method is supported for all expressions. This default implementation handles iteration for expressions that return singleton values: for non-singleton expressions, the subclass must provide its own implementation.

Parameters:

context - supplies the context for evaluation

Returns:

a SequenceIterator that can be used to iterate over the result of the expression

Throws:

XPathException - if any dynamic error occurs evaluating the expression

effectiveBooleanValue

public boolean effectiveBooleanValue(XPathContext context)
                              throws XPathException

Get the effective boolean value of the expression. This returns false if the value is the empty sequence, a zero-length string, a number equal to zero, or the boolean false. Otherwise it returns true.

Parameters:

context - The context in which the expression is to be evaluated

Returns:

the effective boolean value

Throws:

XPathException - if any dynamic error occurs evaluating the expression

evaluateAsString

public java.lang.String evaluateAsString(XPathContext context)
                                  throws XPathException

Evaluate an expression as a String. This function must only be called in contexts where it is known that the expression will return a single string (or where an empty sequence is to be treated as a zero-length string). Implementations should not attempt to convert the result to a string, other than converting () to "". This method is used mainly to evaluate expressions produced by compiling an attribute value template.

Parameters:

context - The context in which the expression is to be evaluated

Returns:

the value of the expression, evaluated in the current context. The expression must return a string or (); if the value of the expression is (), this method returns "".

Throws:

XPathException - if any dynamic error occurs evaluating the expression

java.lang.ClassCastException - if the result type of the expression is not xs:string?

process

public void process(XPathContext context)
             throws XPathException

Process the instruction, without returning any tail calls

Parameters:

context - The dynamic context, giving access to the current node, the current variables, etc.

Throws:

XPathException

display

public void display(int level,
                    NamePool pool,
                    java.io.PrintStream out)

Diagnostic print of expression structure. The expression is written to the System.err output stream

Parameters:

level - indentation level for this expression

pool - NamePool used to expand any names appearing in the expression

out - Output destination

checkPermittedContents

public void checkPermittedContents(SchemaType parentType,
                                   StaticContext env,
                                   boolean whole)
                            throws XPathException

Check statically that the results of the expression are capable of constructing the content of a given schema type.

Parameters:

parentType - The schema type

env - the static context

whole - true if this expression is expected to make the whole content of the type, false if it is expected to make up only a part

Throws:

XPathException - if the expression doesn't match the required content type