Some code for autoboxing semantics

[michaelheilmann]

I have in my code base the following code for autoboxing support; maybe it can be added to TypeReference or wherever it may be appropriate. It seems like a nice addition when dealing with type signatures.

  /**
   * @brief
   *  Perform unboxing i.e. apply the following mapping
   *  <ul>
   *    <li>java.lang.Boolean -> boolean</li>
   *    <li>java.lang.Byte -> byte</li>
   *    <li>java.lang.Character -> char</li>
   *    <li>java.lang.Double -> double</li>
   *    <li>java.lang.Float -> float</li>
   *    <li>java.lang.Integer -> int</li>
   *    <li>java.lang.Long -> long</li>
   *    <li>java.lang.Short -> short</li>
   *  </ul>
   *  if @a t refers to one of the types on the left-hand side,
   *  otherwise simply return @a t.
   * @param t
   *  The type reference.
   * @return
   *  The type reference to the unboxed type or @a t.
   */
  public static TypeReference unbox(TypeReference t) {
    if (t == TypeReference.JavaLangBoolean) {
      return TypeReference.Boolean;
    } else if (t == TypeReference.JavaLangByte) {
      return TypeReference.Byte;
    } else if (t == TypeReference.JavaLangCharacter) {
      return TypeReference.Char;
    } else if (t == TypeReference.JavaLangDouble) {
      return TypeReference.Double;
    } else if (t == TypeReference.JavaLangFloat) {
      return TypeReference.Float;
    } else if (t == TypeReference.JavaLangInteger) {
      return TypeReference.Int;
    } else if (t == TypeReference.JavaLangLong) {
      return TypeReference.Long;
    } else if (t == TypeReference.JavaLangShort) {
      return TypeReference.Short;
    } else {
      return t;
    }
  }

  /**
   * @brief
   *  Perform boxing i.e. apply the following mapping
   *  <ul>
   *    <li>boolean -> java.lang.Boolean</li>
   *    <li>byte -> java.lang.Byte</li>
   *    <li>char -> java.lang.Character</li>
   *    <li>double -> java.lang.Double</li>
   *    <li>float -> java.lang.Float</li>
   *    <li>int -> java.lang.Integer</li>
   *    <li>long -> java.lang.Long</li>
   *    <li>short -> java.lang.Short</li>
   *  <ul>
   *  if @a t refers to one of the types on the left-hand side,
   *  otherwise simply return @a t.
   * @param t
   *  The type reference.
   * @return
   *  The type reference to the boxed type or @a t.
   */
  public static TypeReference box(TypeReference t) {
    if (t == TypeReference.Boolean) {
      return TypeReference.JavaLangBoolean;
    } else if (t == TypeReference.Byte) {
      return TypeReference.JavaLangByte;
    } else if (t == TypeReference.Char) {
      return TypeReference.JavaLangCharacter;
    } else if (t == TypeReference.Double) {
      return TypeReference.JavaLangDouble;
    } else if (t == TypeReference.Float) {
      return TypeReference.JavaLangFloat;
    } else if (t == TypeReference.Int) {
      return TypeReference.JavaLangInteger;
    } else if (t == TypeReference.Long) {
      return TypeReference.JavaLangLong;
    } else if (t == TypeReference.Short) {
      return TypeReference.JavaLangShort;
    } else {
      return t;
    }
  }