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/*
 * This file is part of the OWL API.
 *
 * The contents of this file are subject to the LGPL License, Version 3.0.
 *
 * Copyright (C) 2011, The University of Manchester
 *
 * This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
 * it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
 * the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
 * (at your option) any later version.
 *
 * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 * GNU General Public License for more details.
 *
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 * along with this program.  If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.
 *
 *
 * Alternatively, the contents of this file may be used under the terms of the Apache License, Version 2.0
 * in which case, the provisions of the Apache License Version 2.0 are applicable instead of those above.
 *
 * Copyright 2011, University of Manchester
 *
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */

package org.semanticweb.owlapi.model;

import java.util.Set;


/**
 * Author: Matthew Horridge
 The University Of Manchester
 Bio-Health Informatics Group Date: 24-Oct-2006
 * Represents Class Expressions in
 * the OWL 2 specification.  This interface covers named and anonymous classes.
 */
public interface OWLClassExpression extends OWLObject, OWLPropertyRange, SWRLPredicate {

    /**
     * Gets the class expression type for this class expression
     * @return The class expression type
     */
    ClassExpressionType getClassExpressionType();

    /**
     * Determines whether or not this expression represents an anonymous class expression.
     * @return true if this is an anonymous class expression, or false if this is a named
     *         class (OWLClass)
     */
    boolean isAnonymous();


    /**
     * Determines if this class is a literal.  A literal being either a named class or the negation of a named class
     * (i.e. A or not(A)).
     * @return true if this is a literal, or false if this is not a literal.
     */
    boolean isClassExpressionLiteral();


    /**
     * If this class expression is in fact a named class then this method may be used to obtain the expression as an
     * OWLClass without the need for casting.  The general pattern of use is to use the
     * isAnonymous to first check
     * @return This class expression as an OWLClass.
     * @throws OWLRuntimeException if this class expression is not an OWLClass.
     */
    OWLClass asOWLClass();


    /**
     * Determines if this expression is the built in class owl:Thing. This method does not determine if the class is
     * equivalent to owl:Thing.
     * @return true if this expression is owl:Thing, or false if this expression is not
     *         owl:Thing
     */
    boolean isOWLThing();


    /**
     * Determines if this expression is the built in class owl:Nothing. This method does not determine if the class is
     * equivalent to owl:Nothing.
     * @return true if this expression is owl:Nothing, or false if this expression is not
     *         owl:Nothing.
     */
    boolean isOWLNothing();


    /**
     * Gets this expression in negation normal form.
     * @return The expression in negation normal form.
     */
    OWLClassExpression getNNF();


    /**
     * Gets the negation normal form of the complement of this expression.
     * @return A expression that represents the NNF of the complement of this expression.
     */
    OWLClassExpression getComplementNNF();

    /**
     * Gets the object complement of this class expression.
     * @return A class expression that is the complement of this class expression.
     */
    OWLClassExpression getObjectComplementOf();

    /**
     * Interprets this expression as a conjunction and returns the conjuncts. This method does not normalise the
     * expression (full CNF is not computed).
     * @return The conjucts of this expression if it is a conjunction (object intersection of), or otherwise a
     *         singleton set containing this expression. Note that nested conjunctions will be flattened, for example,
     *         calling this method on (A and B) and C will return the set {A, B, C}
     */
    Set asConjunctSet();

    /**
     * Determines if this class expression contains a particular conjunct. This method does not do any normalisation
     * such as applying DeMorgans rules.
     * @param ce The conjunct to test for
     * @return true if this class expression is equal to ce or if this class expression
     * is an ObjectIntersectionOf (possibly nested withing another ObjectIntersectionOf)
     * that contains ce, otherwise false.
     */
    boolean containsConjunct(OWLClassExpression ce);


    /**
     * Interprets this expression as a disjunction and returns the disjuncts. This method does not normalise the
     * expression (full DNF is not computed).
     * @return The disjuncts of this expression if it is a disjunction (object union of), or otherwise a
     *         singleton set containing this expression. Note that nested disjunctions will be flattened, for example,
     *         calling this method on (A or B) or C will return the set {A, B, C}
     */
    Set asDisjunctSet();


    /**
     * Accepts a visit from an OWLExpressionVisitor
     * @param visitor The visitor that wants to visit
     */
    void accept(OWLClassExpressionVisitor visitor);

    @SuppressWarnings("javadoc")
     O accept(OWLClassExpressionVisitorEx visitor);


}