org.semanticweb.owlapi.util.BidirectionalShortFormProvider Maven / Gradle / Ivy

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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.util;

import java.util.Set;

import org.semanticweb.owlapi.model.OWLEntity;

/**
 * A short form provider which is capable of translating back and forth between
 * entities and their short forms.
 * 
 * @author Matthew Horridge, The University Of Manchester, Bio-Health
 *         Informatics Group, Date: 18-Apr-2007
 */
public interface BidirectionalShortFormProvider extends ShortFormProvider {

    /**
     * For a given short form this method obtains the entities which have this
     * short form.
     * 
     * @param shortForm
     *        The short form of the entities that will be retrieved.
     * @return The set of entities that have the specified short form. If there
     *         are no entities which have the specified short form then an empty
     *         set will be returned.
     */
    Set getEntities(String shortForm);

    /**
     * A convenience method which gets an entity from its short form.
     * 
     * @param shortForm
     *        The short form of the entity.
     * @return The actual entity or {@code null} if there is no entity which has
     *         the specified short form. If the specified short form corresponds
     *         to more than one entity then an entity will be chosen by the
     *         implementation of the short form provider.
     */
    OWLEntity getEntity(String shortForm);

    /**
     * Gets all of the short forms that are mapped to entities.
     * 
     * @return A set, which contains the strings representing the short forms of
     *         entities for which there is a mapping.
     */
    Set getShortForms();
}