Extending OCL with Map and Function Types

Abstract

Map and function types are of high utility in software specification and design, for example, maps can be used to represent configurations or caches, whilst function values can be used to enable genericity and reuse in a specification, and to support mechanisms such as callbacks or closures in an implementation. Map and function types have been incorporated into the leading programming languages, including Java, C++, Swift and Python. The Object Constraint Language (OCL) specification notation lacks such types, and in this paper we make a proposal for a consistent extension of OCL with map and function types, and we identify modifications to OCL semantics to include these types. We also describe how map and function types are implemented using the Eclipse AgileUML toolset.