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eContainer nulls attribute despite containment [message #1842551]

Wed, 23 June 2021 05:53

Eclipse User

I have a Model called "Abstract Statement" which contains a pre and post condition of the type "Condition" (which further contains "Expression" with certain attributes).
I use Xtext for parsing some text into Java classes.
When I parse my text I end up with the class "Abstract Statement" and it indeed has a condition->expression->...
However, when I call the method eContainer() from my statement the condition is null. Other attributes in the statement get parsed correctly, but the condition is always null.

Here is the relevant part of my ecore:

 <eClassifiers xsi:type="ecore:EClass" name="Condition">
   <eStructuralFeatures xsi:type="ecore:EReference" name="condition" eType="#//Expression" containment="true"/>
  </eClassifiers>
  <eClassifiers xsi:type="ecore:EClass" name="AbstractStatement">
    <eStructuralFeatures xsi:type="ecore:EAttribute" name="name" eType="ecore:EDataType http://www.eclipse.org/emf/2002/Ecore#//EString"/>
    <eStructuralFeatures xsi:type="ecore:EReference" name="refinement" eType="#//AbstractStatement"
        containment="true" eOpposite="#//AbstractStatement/parent"/>
    <eStructuralFeatures xsi:type="ecore:EReference" name="parent" eType="#//AbstractStatement"
        eOpposite="#//AbstractStatement/refinement"/>
    <eStructuralFeatures xsi:type="ecore:EReference" name="postCondition" eType="#//Condition"
        containment="true"/>
    <eStructuralFeatures xsi:type="ecore:EReference" name="preCondition" eType="#//Condition"
        containment="true"/>
    <eStructuralFeatures xsi:type="ecore:EAttribute" name="proven" eType="ecore:EDataType http://www.eclipse.org/emf/2002/Ecore#//EBoolean"/>
    <eStructuralFeatures xsi:type="ecore:EAttribute" name="comment" eType="ecore:EDataType http://www.eclipse.org/emf/2002/Ecore#//EString"/>
  </eClassifiers>

<eClassifiers xsi:type="ecore:EClass" name="Expression">
    <eStructuralFeatures xsi:type="ecore:EAttribute" name="foreach" eType="ecore:EDataType http://www.eclipse.org/emf/2002/Ecore#//EString"/>
    <eStructuralFeatures xsi:type="ecore:EReference" name="type" eType="ecore:EClass platform:/resource/org.eclipse.xtext.common.types/model/JavaVMTypes.ecore#//JvmTypeReference"
        containment="true"/>
    <eStructuralFeatures xsi:type="ecore:EReference" name="var" eType="#//VariableOrMethodName"
        containment="true"/>
    <eStructuralFeatures xsi:type="ecore:EReference" name="right" eType="#//Expression"
        containment="true"/>
    <eStructuralFeatures xsi:type="ecore:EAttribute" name="exists" eType="ecore:EDataType http://www.eclipse.org/emf/2002/Ecore#//EString"/>
    <eStructuralFeatures xsi:type="ecore:EAttribute" name="isTrue" eType="ecore:EDataType http://www.eclipse.org/emf/2002/Ecore#//EBoolean"/>
  </eClassifiers>

As You can see, the Condition has a containment=true. This is why I am confused. Can you help me understanding why the eContainer ignores the condition and how to solve that?

P.S. Here is an image of the runtime variable statement (compare the precondition.condition and container.precondition.condition)

index.php/fa/40683/0/

Thanks in advance.

Attachment: Bildschirmfoto 2021-06-23 um 11.55.17.png
(Size: 72.05KB, Downloaded 245 times)

[Updated on: Wed, 23 June 2021 06:00] by Moderator

Re: eContainer nulls attribute despite containment [message #1842552 is a reply to message #1842551]

Wed, 23 June 2021 09:21

Eclipse User

Hi

A common cause of unexpected containment is child stealing [1] Section 3.4.

Generally the problem is that assignment elsewhere displaces the containment you are interested in leaving you confused.

The following overload in a root EObjectImpl is a good way to debug.

	@Override
	protected void eBasicSetContainer(InternalEObject newContainer, int newContainerFeatureID) {
		if (newContainer != null) {
			EObject oldContainer = eInternalContainer();
			assert (oldContainer == null) || oldContainer.eIsProxy() || (newContainer == oldContainer) || (oldContainer.eResource() == null);
		}		
		super.eBasicSetContainer(newContainer, newContainerFeatureID);
	}

Regards

Ed Willink

[1] http://www.eclipse.org/mmt/qvt/docs/ICMT2014/QVTtraceability.pdf

Re: eContainer nulls attribute despite containment [message #1842554 is a reply to message #1842551]

Wed, 23 June 2021 09:27

Eclipse User

I've read this multiple times but I must confess that I do not understand the question and what you are wanting to compare with what. I have no idea why you think there must be a relation between condition and eContainer. They are in no way related. If the condition is null it's because you have set a condition. If the eContainer is null, it means that object is a root object (is not contained by anything else)....

Re: eContainer nulls attribute despite containment [message #1842557 is a reply to message #1842554]

Wed, 23 June 2021 12:02

Eclipse User

What's the point of your Condition class if it only contains an Expression instance? Why are the AbstractStatement::preCondition and AbstractStatement::postCondition features not directly of type Expression?

Perhaps you need to tweak your parser to not create "empty" Condition instances if a statement does not specifiy expressions for these conditions? How does the parser input look for the debug screenshot you showed?

BTW. what about renaming your Condition::condition feature to "expression"?

Re: eContainer nulls attribute despite containment [message #1842572 is a reply to message #1842557]

Thu, 24 June 2021 03:08

Eclipse User

@Ed Willink I added the code to the ImplImpl + ConditionImpl and the asserts did not get called.
I am not too sure, but I don't think the condition gets assigned elsewhere, so child stealing might not be the issue (But the paper explained it very nicely :) ).

@Ed Merks From what I understand: When I have an eClassifiers X with the eStructuralFeatures Y in Ecore with containment=true, than Y will appear in the eContainer of X. Maybe that is complete nonsense, but it is what I understood from the docs.

What I am trying to do is quite simple. I parse objects (AbstractStatements, which are implemented differently), which all have a pre- and postcondition.
Now, on a new Object, I want to 1) check if the pre- and post condition fits to the "parent" pre- and postcondition (and iterate upwards towards the root element).
For that, I compare current.pre with current.econtainer.pre and same with post. This worked, when I had my Condition set as EString. But now, that I am using the newly created Expression for that the condition of the eContainer is always null.

I don't think this is a problem of the Xtext parser, because the current precondition (In Screenshot AbstractStatementImpl) is set and neither empty nor null. But it might be a problem of my ecore model?!

I might as well skip the condition and work with an expression right away as @Eike Stepper suggested, but I had some problems in Xtext while trying that. However, that should not be the root of the problem. (I enforce object creation of a condition in Xtext already)

If You want to look at the whole project, here is the ecore:https://github.com/Babwenbiber/CorC/blob/feature/jdl/de.tu-bs.cs.isf.cbc.model/model/cbcmodel.ecore
And this are the Xtext rules: https://github.com/Babwenbiber/CorC/blob/feature/jdl/de.tu_bs.cs.isf.cbc.textual.tool/src/de/tu_bs/cs/isf/cbc/textual/tool/Dsl.xtext

[Updated on: Thu, 24 June 2021 03:50] by Moderator

Re: eContainer nulls attribute despite containment [message #1842580 is a reply to message #1842572]

Thu, 24 June 2021 05:55

Eclipse User

@Ed Merks From what I understand: When I have an eClassifiers X with the eStructuralFeatures Y in Ecore with containment=true, than Y will appear in the eContainer of X. Maybe that is complete nonsense, but it is what I understood from the docs.

You use "Y" to refer to a structural feature but then also to an object, presumably of the Y feature's type. This statement is only true if Y is contained by X's Y feature and not by some other class' containment feature.

I'd like to be able to help, but I can't follow what you are saying... Set breakpoints, e.g., in setCondition to see when you are setting it and when you are not...

Re: eContainer nulls attribute despite containment [message #1842583 is a reply to message #1842580]

Thu, 24 June 2021 07:32

Eclipse User

Hi

My earlier answer suggested ways in which a valid containment can be lost. From your response it seems that no valid containment ever got assigned.

Without a repro it is hard to help. My guess, since you are using Xtext, is that your grammar and/or metamodel inhibit the containment; Xtext does not assign non-containment references but these days it diagnoses this, so perhaps you are using a very old Xtext, perhaps you have an inconsistent build state, perhaps ... Need a repro. Should be easy to debug if we could see the grammar.

Regards

Ed Willink

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