6.5.4 Meaning of Type Names

The meaning of a name classified as a TypeName is determined as follows.

6.5.4.1 Simple Type Names

If a type name consists of a single Identifier, then the identifier must occur in the scope of a declaration of a type with this name, or a compile-time error occurs. It is possible that the identifier occurs within the scope of more than one type with that name, in which case the type denoted by the name is determined as follows:

• If a type with that name is declared in the current compilation unit (§7.3), either by a single-type-import declaration (§7.5.1) or by a declaration of a class or interface type (§7.6), then the simple type name denotes that type.
• Otherwise, if a type with that name is declared in another compilation unit (§7.3) of the package (§7.1) containing the identifier, then the identifier denotes that type. Note that, in systems that store compilation units in a file system, such a compilation unit must have a file name that is the name of the type (§7.6).
• Otherwise, if a type of that name is declared by exactly one type-import-on-demand declaration (§7.5.2) of the compilation unit containing the identifier, then the simple type name denotes that type.
• Otherwise, if a type of that name is declared by more than one type-import-on-demand declaration of the compilation unit, then the name is ambiguous as a type name; a compile-time error occurs.
• Otherwise, the name is undefined as a type name; a compile-time error occurs.

This order for considering type declarations is designed to choose the most explicit of two or more applicable type declarations.

6.5.4.2 Qualified Type Names

If a type name is of the form Q.Id, then Q must be a package name. The type name Q.Id names a type that is the member named Id within the package named by Q. If Q does not name an accessible package, or Id does not name a type within that package, or the type named Id within that package is not accessible (§6.6), then a compile-time error occurs.

The example:

package wnj.test;

class Test {
	public static void main(String[] args) {
		java.util.Date date =
			new java.util.Date(System.currentTimeMillis());
		System.out.println(date.toLocaleString());
	}
}

produced the following output the first time it was run:

Sun Jan 21 22:56:29 1996

In this example:

• The name wnj.test must name a package on the host system. It is resolved by first looking for the package wnj, using the procedure described in §6.5.3.1, and then making sure that the subpackage test of this package is accessible.
• The name java.util.Date (§21.3) must denote a type, so we first use the procedure recursively to determine if java.util is an accessible package, which it is, and then look to see if the type Date is accessible in this package.