IEntityDescriptor abstract#

Descriptor for an ENTITY type in the EXPRESS schema system.

Provides metadata and structural information about entity types, including inheritance hierarchy, attributes, and complex type composition.

Constructors#

IEntityDescriptor()#

Properties#

attributeCount no setter#

Gets the total number of attributes in the entity type.

This includes all attributes inherited from supertypes.

int get attributeCount;

attributeOwners no setter#

Gets the owning entity types for each attribute, in indexed order.

Returns a list of type IDs indicating which entity type in the inheritance hierarchy defines each attribute.

List<int> get attributeOwners;

baseType no setter inherited#

Gets the base type identifier.

Conceptually similar to the return value of getFundamentalBaseType, representing the underlying fundamental type.

Inherited from ITypeDescriptor.

int get baseType;

complexTypeId no setter#

Gets the complex type identifier if this is a complex entity type.

Returns the type ID of the complex type, or 0 if this is not a complex entity type.

int get complexTypeId;

displayName no setter#

Gets the display name of the entity type.

Returns a user-friendly name suitable for UI presentation.

String get displayName;

fundamentalType no setter inherited#

Gets the fundamental type categorization.

Returns the FundamentalType enumeration value that categorizes this type within the fundamental type system.

Inherited from ITypeDescriptor.

FundamentalType get fundamentalType;

hashCode no setter inherited#

The hash code for this object.

A hash code is a single integer which represents the state of the object that affects operator == comparisons.

All objects have hash codes. The default hash code implemented by Object represents only the identity of the object, the same way as the default operator == implementation only considers objects equal if they are identical (see identityHashCode).

If operator == is overridden to use the object state instead, the hash code must also be changed to represent that state, otherwise the object cannot be used in hash based data structures like the default Set and Map implementations.

Hash codes must be the same for objects that are equal to each other according to operator ==. The hash code of an object should only change if the object changes in a way that affects equality. There are no further requirements for the hash codes. They need not be consistent between executions of the same program and there are no distribution guarantees.

Objects that are not equal are allowed to have the same hash code. It is even technically allowed that all instances have the same hash code, but if clashes happen too often, it may reduce the efficiency of hash-based data structures like HashSet or HashMap.

If a subclass overrides hashCode, it should override the operator == operator as well to maintain consistency.

Inherited from Object.

external int get hashCode;

isAbstract no setter#

Indicates whether this entity type is abstract.

Abstract entity types cannot be directly instantiated and serve only as super types for inheritance hierarchies.

bool get isAbstract;

isComplete no setter#

Indicates whether this entity type is complete.

A complete entity has no instance type attributes (as determined by isInstanceFundamentalType). This is a PIComposer API concept used for certain application optimizations.

bool get isComplete;

isFinal no setter#

Indicates whether this entity type is final (has no subtypes).

Final entity types cannot be further subclassed in the schema.

bool get isFinal;

isNull no setter inherited#

Indicates whether the object represents a null value.

Returns true if the object is considered null according to its implementation, false otherwise.

Inherited from INullableObject.

bool get isNull;

partCount no setter#

Gets the part count for a complex entity descriptor.

Returns the number of constituent parts that make up this complex entity type.

int get partCount;

parts no setter#

Gets the part type identifiers for a complex entity type.

Returns a list of type IDs representing the parts that constitute this complex entity type in STEP compliant sorted order.

List<int> get parts;

referenceType no setter inherited#

Gets the reference type identifier.

The defined type this type is aliased to. Example: TYPE IfcLabel = STRING(255); END_TYPE; TYPE IfcBoxAlignment = IfcLabel; END_TYPE; The reference type of IfcBoxAlignment is IfcLabel

Inherited from ITypeDescriptor.

int get referenceType;

runtimeType no setter inherited#

A representation of the runtime type of the object.

Inherited from Object.

external Type get runtimeType;

schema no setter inherited#

Gets the schema object that holds this descriptor.

Returns the ISchema instance that contains and manages this type descriptor.

Inherited from ITypeDescriptor.

ISchema get schema;

schemaEnum no setter inherited#

Gets the schema where this type is defined.

Returns the SupportedSchema enumeration value identifying the specific schema that contains this type definition.

Inherited from ITypeDescriptor.

SupportedSchema get schemaEnum;

subTypes no setter#

Gets the immediate subtype identifiers.

Returns a list of type IDs representing entities that directly inherit from this entity type.

List<int> get subTypes;

superTypes no setter#

Gets the immediate supertype identifiers.

Returns a list of type IDs representing entities that this entity directly inherits from.

List<int> get superTypes;

type no setter inherited#

Gets the EXPRESS type name that this descriptor represents.

Inherited from ITypeDescriptor.

String get type;

typeId no setter inherited#

Gets the hash-based identifier for the type.

Computed from the type name using toTypeId function.

Inherited from ITypeDescriptor.

int get typeId => toTypeId(type);

Methods#

getAttributeDescriptor()#

Gets the attribute descriptor at the specified index.

index: The zero-based index of the attribute to retrieve.

Returns the IAttributeDescriptor for the specified attribute. Returns null descriptor if index is out of range

IAttributeDescriptor getAttributeDescriptor(int index);

getAttributeIndex()#

Gets the attribute index from its attribute name.

attName: The name of the attribute to find.

Returns the zero-based index of the attribute, or -1 if not found.

int getAttributeIndex(String attName);

getExplicitRange()#

Gets the explicit attribute range defined by this entity.

The explicit range is the index range of attributes defined by this entity definition, excluding inherited attributes from supertype entities.

Returns a tuple with the start (inclusive) and end (exclusive) indices of the explicitly defined attributes.

(int start, int end) getExplicitRange();

getInvokeTarget()#

Internal method for getting invocation target information.

index: The attribute index to query.

Returns a tuple containing:

• part: The part identifier
• overridingPart: The overriding part identifier
• index: The attribute index
• partIndex: The part index

(int part, int overridingPart, int index, int partIndex) getInvokeTarget(
    int index);

getPartExplicitRange()#

Gets the explicit attribute range for a specific part in a complex entity.

index: The part index to query.

Returns a tuple with the start (inclusive) and end (exclusive) indices of the explicitly defined attributes for the specified part.

(int start, int end) getPartExplicitRange(int index);

isEquivalent() inherited#

Inherited from ITypeDescriptor.

bool isEquivalent(ITypeDescriptor other);

noSuchMethod() inherited#

Invoked when a nonexistent method or property is accessed.

A dynamic member invocation can attempt to call a member which doesn't exist on the receiving object. Example:

dynamic object = 1;
object.add(42); // Statically allowed, run-time error

This invalid code will invoke the noSuchMethod method of the integer 1 with an Invocation representing the .add(42) call and arguments (which then throws).

Classes can override noSuchMethod to provide custom behavior for such invalid dynamic invocations.

A class with a non-default noSuchMethod invocation can also omit implementations for members of its interface. Example:

class MockList<T> implements List<T> {
  noSuchMethod(Invocation invocation) {
    log(invocation);
    super.noSuchMethod(invocation); // Will throw.
  }
}
void main() {
  MockList().add(42);
}

This code has no compile-time warnings or errors even though the MockList class has no concrete implementation of any of the List interface methods. Calls to List methods are forwarded to noSuchMethod, so this code will log an invocation similar to Invocation.method(#add, [42]) and then throw.

If a value is returned from noSuchMethod, it becomes the result of the original invocation. If the value is not of a type that can be returned by the original invocation, a type error occurs at the invocation.

The default behavior is to throw a NoSuchMethodError.

Inherited from Object.

@pragma("vm:entry-point")
@pragma("wasm:entry-point")
external dynamic noSuchMethod(Invocation invocation);

toString() inherited#

A string representation of this object.

Some classes have a default textual representation, often paired with a static parse function (like int.parse). These classes will provide the textual representation as their string representation.

Other classes have no meaningful textual representation that a program will care about. Such classes will typically override toString to provide useful information when inspecting the object, mainly for debugging or logging.

Inherited from Object.

external String toString();

Operators#

operator ==() inherited#

The equality operator.

The default behavior for all Objects is to return true if and only if this object and other are the same object.

Override this method to specify a different equality relation on a class. The overriding method must still be an equivalence relation. That is, it must be:

• Total: It must return a boolean for all arguments. It should never throw.

• Reflexive: For all objects o, o == o must be true.

• Symmetric: For all objects o1 and o2, o1 == o2 and o2 == o1 must either both be true, or both be false.

• Transitive: For all objects o1, o2, and o3, if o1 == o2 and o2 == o3 are true, then o1 == o3 must be true.

The method should also be consistent over time, so whether two objects are equal should only change if at least one of the objects was modified.

If a subclass overrides the equality operator, it should override the hashCode method as well to maintain consistency.

Inherited from Object.

external bool operator ==(Object other);