path: root/lib/stdlib/doc/src/erl_anno.xml

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<!DOCTYPE erlref SYSTEM "erlref.dtd">

<erlref>
  <header>
    <copyright>
      <year>2015</year>
      <year>2016</year>
      <holder>Ericsson AB, All Rights Reserved</holder>
    </copyright>
    <legalnotice>
  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.

  The Initial Developer of the Original Code is Ericsson AB.
    </legalnotice>

    <title>erl_anno</title>
    <prepared>Hans Bolinder</prepared>
    <responsible>Kenneth Lundin</responsible>
    <docno>1</docno>
    <approved></approved>
    <checked></checked>
    <date>2015-02-26</date>
    <rev>A</rev>
    <file>erl_anno.xml</file>
  </header>
  <module>erl_anno</module>

  <modulesummary>
    Abstract Datatype for the Annotations of the Erlang Compiler
  </modulesummary>

  <description>
    <p>This module implements an abstract type that is used by the
      Erlang Compiler and its helper modules for holding data such as
      column, line number, and text. The data type is a collection of
      <marker id="annotations"/><em>annotations</em> as
      described in the following.</p>
    <p>The Erlang Token Scanner returns tokens with a subset of
      the following annotations, depending on the options:</p>
    <taglist>
      <tag><c>column</c></tag>
      <item><p>The column where the token begins.</p></item>
      <tag><c>location</c></tag>
      <item><p>The line and column where the token begins, or
        just the line if the column unknown.</p>
      </item>
      <tag><c>text</c></tag>
      <item><p>The token's text.</p></item>
    </taglist>
    <p>From the above the following annotation is derived:</p>
    <taglist>
      <tag><c>line</c></tag>
      <item><p>The line where the token begins.</p></item>
    </taglist>
    <p>Furthermore, the following annotations are supported by
      this module, and used by various modules:</p>
    <taglist>
      <tag><c>file</c></tag>
      <item><p>A filename.</p></item>
      <tag><c>generated</c></tag>
      <item><p>A Boolean indicating if the abstract code is
        compiler generated. The Erlang Compiler does not emit warnings
        for such code.</p>
      </item>
      <tag><c>record</c></tag>
      <item><p>A Boolean indicating if the origin of the abstract
        code is a record. Used by Dialyzer to assign types to tuple
        elements.</p>
      </item>
    </taglist>
    <p>The functions
      <seealso marker="erl_scan#column/1">column()</seealso>,
      <seealso marker="erl_scan#end_location/1">end_location()</seealso>,
      <seealso marker="erl_scan#line/1">line()</seealso>,
      <seealso marker="erl_scan#location/1">location()</seealso>, and
      <seealso marker="erl_scan#text/1">text()</seealso>
      in the <c>erl_scan</c> module can be used for inspecting
      annotations in tokens.</p>
    <p>The functions
      <seealso marker="erl_parse#map_anno/2">map_anno()</seealso>,
      <seealso marker="erl_parse#fold_anno/3">fold_anno()</seealso>,
      <seealso marker="erl_parse#mapfold_anno/3">mapfold_anno()</seealso>,
      <seealso marker="erl_parse#new_anno/1">new_anno()</seealso>,
      <seealso marker="erl_parse#anno_from_term/1">
      anno_from_term()</seealso>, and
      <seealso marker="erl_parse#anno_to_term/1">
      anno_to_term()</seealso> in the <c>erl_parse</c> module can be
      used for manipulating annotations in abstract code.
    </p>
  </description>

  <datatypes>
    <datatype>
      <name>anno()</name>
      <desc><p>A collection of annotations.</p>
      </desc>
    </datatype>
    <datatype>
      <name name="anno_term"></name>
      <desc>
        <p>The term representing a collection of annotations. It is
          either a <c>location()</c> or a list of key-value pairs.</p>
      </desc>
    </datatype>
    <datatype>
      <name name="column"></name>
    </datatype>
    <datatype>
      <name name="line"></name>
      <desc>
      <p>To be changed to a non-negative integer in Erlang/OTP 19.0.</p>
      </desc>
    </datatype>
    <datatype>
      <name name="location"></name>
    </datatype>
    <datatype>
      <name name="text"></name>
    </datatype>
  </datatypes>

  <funcs>
    <func>
      <name name="column" arity="1"/>
      <fsummary>Return the column</fsummary>
      <type name="column"></type>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns the column of the annotations <anno>Anno</anno>.
        </p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="end_location" arity="1"/>
      <fsummary>Return the end location of the text</fsummary>
      <type name="location"></type>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns the end location of the text of the
          annotations <anno>Anno</anno>. If there is no text,
          <c>undefined</c> is returned.
        </p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="file" arity="1"/>
      <fsummary>Return the filename</fsummary>
      <type name="filename"></type>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns the filename of the annotations <anno>Anno</anno>.
          If there is no filename, <c>undefined</c> is returned.
        </p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="from_term" arity="1"/>
      <fsummary>Return annotations given a term</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns annotations with the representation <anno>Term</anno>.
        </p>
        <!--
        <p>Although it is possible to create new annotations by calling
          <c>from_term/1</c>, the intention is that one should not do
          so - the proper way to create annotations is to call
          <c>new/1</c> and then modify the annotations
          by calling the <c>set_*</c> functions.</p>
        -->
        <p>See also <seealso marker="#to_term/1">to_term()</seealso>.
        </p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="generated" arity="1"/>
      <fsummary>Return the generated Boolean</fsummary>
      <type name="generated"></type>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns <c>true</c> if the annotations <anno>Anno</anno>
          has been marked as generated. The default is to return
          <c>false</c>.
        </p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="is_anno" arity="1"/>
      <fsummary>Test for a collection of annotations</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns <c>true</c> if <anno>Term</anno> is a collection of
          annotations, <c>false</c> otherwise.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="line" arity="1"/>
      <fsummary>Return the line</fsummary>
      <type name="line"></type>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns the line of the annotations <anno>Anno</anno>.
        </p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="location" arity="1"/>
      <fsummary>Return the location</fsummary>
      <type name="location"></type>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns the location of the annotations <anno>Anno</anno>.
        </p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="new" arity="1"/>
      <fsummary>Create a new collection of annotations</fsummary>
      <type name="location"></type>
      <desc>
        <p>Creates a new collection of annotations given a location.</p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="set_file" arity="2"/>
      <fsummary>Modify the filename</fsummary>
      <type name="filename"></type>
      <desc>
        <p>Modifies the filename of the annotations <anno>Anno</anno>.
        </p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="set_generated" arity="2"/>
      <fsummary>Modify the generated marker</fsummary>
      <type name="generated"></type>
      <desc>
        <p>Modifies the generated marker of the annotations
          <anno>Anno</anno>.
        </p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="set_line" arity="2"/>
      <fsummary>Modify the line</fsummary>
      <type name="line"></type>
      <desc>
        <p>Modifies the line of the annotations <anno>Anno</anno>.
        </p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="set_location" arity="2"/>
      <fsummary>Modify the location</fsummary>
      <type name="location"></type>
      <desc>
        <p>Modifies the location of the annotations <anno>Anno</anno>.
        </p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="set_record" arity="2"/>
      <fsummary>Modify the record marker</fsummary>
      <type name="record"></type>
      <desc>
        <p>Modifies the record marker of the annotations <anno>Anno</anno>.
        </p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="set_text" arity="2"/>
      <fsummary>Modify the text</fsummary>
      <type name="text"></type>
      <desc>
        <p>Modifies the text of the annotations <anno>Anno</anno>.
        </p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="text" arity="1"/>
      <fsummary>Return the text</fsummary>
      <type name="text"></type>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns the text of the annotations <anno>Anno</anno>.
        If there is no text, <c>undefined</c> is returned.
        </p>
      </desc>
    </func>
    <func>
      <name name="to_term" arity="1"/>
      <fsummary>Return the term representing a collection of
        annotations</fsummary>
      <desc>
        <p>Returns the term representing the annotations <anno>Anno</anno>.
        </p>
        <p>See also <seealso marker="#from_term/1">from_term()</seealso>.
        </p>
      </desc>
    </func>
  </funcs>
  <section>
    <title>See Also</title>
    <p><seealso marker="erl_scan">erl_scan(3)</seealso>,
       <seealso marker="erl_parse">erl_parse(3)</seealso>
    </p>
  </section>
</erlref>