Type erasure

Short description: Process by which explicit type annotations are removed from a program

In programming languages, type erasure is the load-time process by which explicit type annotations are removed from a program, before it is executed at run-time. Operational semantics not requiring programs to be accompanied by types are named type-erasure semantics, in contrast with type-passing semantics. Type-erasure semantics is an abstraction principle, ensuring that the run-time execution of a program doesn't depend on type information. In the context of generic programming, the opposite of type erasure is named reification.[1]

## Type inference

Main article: Type inference

The reverse operation is named type inference. Though type erasure can be an easy way to define typing over implicitly typed languages (an implicitly typed term is well-typed if and only if it is the erasure of a well-typed explicitly typed lambda term), it doesn't provide Rule of inference for this definition.

## See also

* Template (C++)
* Problems with type erasure (in Generics in Java)
* Monomorphization
* Type polymorphism

## References

1. ↑ Langer, Angelika. "What is reification?". http://www.angelikalanger.com/GenericsFAQ/FAQSections/TechnicalDetails.html#FAQ101A.

* Crary, Karl (2002). "Intensional Polymorphism in Type-Erasure Semantics". Journal of Functional Programming 12 (6): 567–600. doi:10.1017/S0956796801004282.

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