Copyright (c) 2008 - 2013 Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.
This program and the accompanying materials are made available under the
terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0 and Eclipse Distribution License v. 1.0
which accompanies this distribution.
The Eclipse Public License is available at http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html
and the Eclipse Distribution License is available at
http://www.eclipse.org/org/documents/edl-v10.php.
Contributors:
    Linda DeMichiel - Java Persistence 2.1
    Linda DeMichiel - Java Persistence 2.0
/*******************************************************************************
 * Copyright (c) 2008 - 2013 Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.
 *
 * This program and the accompanying materials are made available under the
 * terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0 and Eclipse Distribution License v. 1.0
 * which accompanies this distribution.
 * The Eclipse Public License is available at http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html
 * and the Eclipse Distribution License is available at
 * http://www.eclipse.org/org/documents/edl-v10.php.
 *
 * Contributors:
 *     Linda DeMichiel - Java Persistence 2.1
 *     Linda DeMichiel - Java Persistence 2.0
 *
 ******************************************************************************/ 
package javax.persistence.metamodel;

Instances of the type PluralAttribute represent 
persistent collection-valued attributes.
Type parameters:
<X> – The type the represented collection belongs to
<C> – The type of the represented collection
<E> – The element type of the represented collection
Since:
Java Persistence 2.0/**
 * Instances of the type <code>PluralAttribute</code> represent 
 * persistent collection-valued attributes.
 *
 * @param <X> The type the represented collection belongs to
 * @param <C> The type of the represented collection
 * @param <E> The element type of the represented collection
 *
 * @since Java Persistence 2.0
 */
public interface PluralAttribute<X, C, E> 
		extends Attribute<X, C>, Bindable<E> {
	
	public static enum CollectionType {

	    
Collection-valued attribute /** Collection-valued attribute */
	    COLLECTION, 

	    
Set-valued attribute /** Set-valued attribute */
	    SET, 

	    
List-valued attribute /** List-valued attribute */
	    LIST, 

	    
Map-valued attribute /** Map-valued attribute */
	    MAP
	}
		
    
Return the collection type.
Returns:
collection type/**
     * Return the collection type.
     * @return collection type
     */
    CollectionType getCollectionType();

    
Return the type representing the element type of the 
collection.
Returns:
element type/**
     * Return the type representing the element type of the 
     * collection.
     * @return element type
     */
    Type<E> getElementType();
}