craterdog.collections.interfaces.Associative Maven / Gradle / Ivy
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* Copyright (c) Crater Dog Technologies(TM). All Rights Reserved. *
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* DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER. *
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* This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it *
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package craterdog.collections.interfaces;
import craterdog.collections.Association;
/**
* This interface defines the methods that must be implemented by each collection that
* associates a set of keys with a set of values.
*
* @author Derk Norton
* @param the key type.
* @param the value type.
*/
public interface Associative {
/**
* This method returns the list of keys for the associations in this collection.
*
* @return The keys for this collection.
*/
Accessible getKeys();
/**
* This method returns the list of values for the associations in this collection.
*
* @return The values for this collection.
*/
Accessible getValues();
/**
* This method returns the list of associations between keys and values for this collection.
*
* @return A list of the key/value associations that make up this collection.
*/
Accessible> getAssociations();
/**
* This method returns the value associated with the specified key.
*
* @param key The key for the value to be retrieved.
* @return The value associated with the key.
*/
V getValue(K key);
/**
* This method associates in this collection a new value with a key. If there is already
* a value associated with the specified key, the new value replaces the old value.
*
* @param key The key for the new value.
* @param value The new value to be associated with the key.
*/
void setValue(K key, V value);
/**
* This method removes from this collection the value associated with a key. If no value
* is associated with the specified key then null is returned.
*
* @param key The key for the value to be removed.
* @return The value associated with the key.
*/
V removeValue(K key);
}