Eclipse Platform Release 3.7

## org.eclipse.debug.core.model
Interface IExpression

All Superinterfaces:
  IAdaptable, IDebugElement

All Known Subinterfaces:
  IErrorReportingExpression, IWatchExpression

    public interface IExpression

extends IDebugElement

An expression is a snippet of code that can be evaluated to produce a value. When and how an expression is evaluated is implementation specific. The context/binding required to evaluate an expression varies by debug model, and by user intent. Furthermore, an expression may need to be evaluated at a specific location in a program (for example, at a breakpoint/line where certain variables referenced in the expression are visible/allocated). A user may want to evaluate an expression once to produce a value that can be inspected iteratively, or they may wish to evaluate an expression iteratively producing new values each time (i.e. as in a watch list).

Clients are intended to implement this interface.

Since:
  2.0

Method Summary
`void` `dispose()` Notifies this expression that it has been removed from the expression manager.
`IDebugTarget` `getDebugTarget()` Returns the debug target this expression is associated with, or `null` if this expression is not associated with a debug target.
`String` `getExpressionText()` Returns this expression's snippet of code.
`IValue` `getValue()` Returns the current value of this expression or `null` if this expression does not currently have a value.

Methods inherited from interface org.eclipse.debug.core.model.IDebugElement
`getLaunch, getModelIdentifier`

Methods inherited from interface org.eclipse.core.runtime.IAdaptable
`getAdapter`

Method Detail

### getExpressionText

    String getExpressionText()

  Returns this expression's snippet of code.

  Returns:
    the expression

### getValue

    IValue getValue()

  Returns the current value of this expression or `null` if this expression does not currently have a value.

  Returns:
    value or `null`

### getDebugTarget

    IDebugTarget getDebugTarget()

  Returns the debug target this expression is associated with, or `null` if this expression is not associated with a debug target.

  Specified by:
    `getDebugTarget` in interface `IDebugElement`
  Returns:
    debug target or `null`
  See Also:
    `IDebugElement.getDebugTarget()`

### dispose

    void dispose()

  Notifies this expression that it has been removed from the expression manager. Any required clean up is be performed such that this expression can be garbage collected.

Eclipse Platform Release 3.7

Guidelines for using Eclipse APIs.

Copyright (c) Eclipse contributors and others 2000, 2011. All rights reserved.