org.hamcrest.Matcher Maven / Gradle / Ivy

Go to download

Show more of this group Show more artifacts with this name
Show all versions of mockito-all Show documentation

Mock objects library for java

There is a newer version: 2.0.2-beta

/*  Copyright (c) 2000-2006 hamcrest.org
 */
package org.hamcrest;

/**
 * A matcher over acceptable values.
 * A matcher is able to describe itself to give feedback when it fails.
 * 
 * Matcher implementations should NOT directly implement this interface.
 * Instead, extend the {@link BaseMatcher} abstract class,
 * which will ensure that the Matcher API can grow to support
 * new features and remain compatible with all Matcher implementations.
 * 

 * For easy access to common Matcher implementations, use the static factory
 * methods in {@link CoreMatchers}.
 *
 * @see CoreMatchers
 * @see BaseMatcher
 */
@SuppressWarnings({"unused", "UnusedDeclaration"})
public interface Matcher extends SelfDescribing {

    /**
     * Evaluates the matcher for argument item.
     * 
     * This method matches against Object, instead of the generic type T. This is
     * because the caller of the Matcher does not know at runtime what the type is
     * (because of type erasure with Java generics). It is down to the implementations
     * to check the correct type. 
     *
     * @param item the object against which the matcher is evaluated.
     * @return true if item matches, otherwise false.
     *
     * @see BaseMatcher
     */
    boolean matches(Object item);

    /**
     * This method simply acts a friendly reminder not to implement Matcher directly and
     * instead extend BaseMatcher. It's easy to ignore JavaDoc, but a bit harder to ignore
     * compile errors .
     *
     * @see Matcher for reasons why.
     * @see BaseMatcher
     */
    void _dont_implement_Matcher___instead_extend_BaseMatcher_();
}