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/*
* #%L
* ELK Reasoner
*
* $Id$
* $HeadURL$
* %%
* Copyright (C) 2011 Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford
* %%
* 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.
* #L%
*/
package org.semanticweb.elk.reasoner.taxonomy.model;
/**
* Basic interface for representing sets of equivalent ElkEntity with one
* canonical representative. The notion of equivalence depends on the
* application but will usually be implied extensional equality.
*
* The way members of each node are hashed and compared is controlled by
* {@link ComparatorKeyProvider} that is returned by {@link #getKeyProvider()}.
* Each time {@link Object#hashCode()} or {@link Object#equals(Object)} needs to
* be computed for a member, it is computed for its key returned by the key
* provider instead. If two members need to be compared, the comparator returned
* by the key provider is used.
*
* @author Markus Kroetzsch
* @author "Yevgeny Kazakov"
* @author Peter Skocovsky
*
* @param
* the type of members of the node
*/
public interface Node extends Iterable {
/**
* Returns the {@link ComparatorKeyProvider} that provides a key for each
* member of this node. These keys are used to compute hash codes and to
* compare the members.
*
* @return the {@link ComparatorKeyProvider} that provides a key for each
* member of this node.
*/
public ComparatorKeyProvider getKeyProvider();
/**
* Returns true iff this node contains a member whose key is
* the same as the key of the provided member.
*
* @param member
* The member whose key is used for the search.
* @return true if this node contains a member whose key is the
* same as the key of the provided member.
*/
public boolean contains(T member);
/**
* Returns the number of members in this node.
*
* @return the number of members in this node.
*/
public int size();
/**
* Get one object to canonically represent the members in this Node.
*
* It is guaranteed that as long as the set of members of this node did not
* change, this method returns always the same member.
*
* @return canonical member
*/
public T getCanonicalMember();
}