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package com.jidesoft.grouper;

import com.jidesoft.comparator.ComparatorContext;
import com.jidesoft.converter.ConverterContext;

/**
 * An interface that can convert a object to a group so that the objects that has the same group can be grouped together.
 * We suggest you extends {@link com.jidesoft.grouper.AbstractObjectGrouper} if you want to create your own ObjectGrouper
 * in case we add new methods to this interface due to requirement changes.
 */
public interface ObjectGrouper {
    /**
     * Gets the group value after this value is grouped. If two objects return the same value
     * in this getGroupValue method, the two objects are considered as one group.
     * We assume all values returned from this method are of the same type which is returned in {@link #getType()}.
     *
     * @param value the value
     * @return the value after grouped.
     */
    Object getValue(Object value);

    /**
     * Gets the group value type. It should be the type of the value that is returned from the getGroupValue.
     *
     * @return the group value type.
     */
    Class getType();

    /**
     * Gets the name of this object grouper.
     *
     * @return the name of this grouper.
     */
    String getName();

    /**
     * Gets the converter context for the value returned from this object grouper.
     * This converter context will be used to find the ObjectConverter that will convert
     * the value returned from {@link #getValue(Object)} method to String so that it can be displayed somewhere.
     *
     * @return the converter context.
     */
    ConverterContext getConverterContext();

    /**
     * Gets the comparator context for the value returned from this object grouper.
     * This comprator context will be used to find the ObjectComparator that will sort the
     * values return from {@link #getValue(Object)} method whenever sorting is needed.
     *
     * @return the converter context.
     */
    ComparatorContext getComparatorContext();
}