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/**
 * Copyright (c) 2002-2013 "Neo Technology,"
 * Network Engine for Objects in Lund AB [http://neotechnology.com]
 *
 * This file is part of Neo4j.
 *
 * Neo4j 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 .
 */
package org.neo4j.graphdb.index;

import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.NoSuchElementException;

import org.neo4j.graphdb.Node;
import org.neo4j.graphdb.Relationship;
import org.neo4j.graphdb.Transaction;

/**
 * An {@link Iterator} with additional {@link #size()} and {@link #close()}
 * methods on it, used for iterating over index query results. It is first and
 * foremost an {@link Iterator}, but also an {@link Iterable} JUST so that it
 * can be used in a for-each loop. The iterator() method
 * always returns this.
 * 
 * The size is calculated before-hand so that calling it is always fast.
 * 
 * When you're done with the result and haven't reached the end of the
 * iteration {@link #close()} must be called. Results which are looped through
 * entirely closes automatically. Typical use:
 * 
 *  * IndexHits hits = index.get( "key", "value" );
 * try
 * {
 *     for ( Node node : hits )
 *     {
 *         // do something with the hit
 *     }
 * }
 * finally
 * {
 *     hits.close();
 * }
 *  
 * 
 * @param  the type of items in the Iterator.
 */
public interface IndexHits extends Iterator, Iterable
{
    /**
     * Returns the size of this iterable, in most scenarios this value is accurate
     * while in some scenarios near-accurate.
     * 
     * There's no cost in calling this method. It's considered near-accurate if this
     * {@link IndexHits} object has been returned when inside a {@link Transaction}
     * which has index modifications, of a certain nature. Also entities
     * ({@link Node}s/{@link Relationship}s) which have been deleted from the graph,
     * but are still in the index will also affect the accuracy of the returned size.
     * 
     * @return the near-accurate size if this iterable.
     */
    int size();

    /**
     * Closes the underlying search result. This method should be called
     * whenever you've got what you wanted from the result and won't use it
     * anymore. It's necessary to call it so that underlying indexes can dispose
     * of allocated resources for this search result.
     * 
     * You can however skip to call this method if you loop through the whole
     * result, then close() will be called automatically. Even if you loop
     * through the entire result and then call this method it will silently
     * ignore any consequtive call (for convenience).
     */
    void close();

    /**
     * Returns the first and only item from the result iterator, or {@code null}
     * if there was none. If there were more than one item in the result a
     * {@link NoSuchElementException} will be thrown. This method must be called
     * first in the iteration and will grab the first item from the iteration,
     * so the result is considered broken after this call.
     * 
     * @return the first and only item, or {@code null} if none.
     */
    T getSingle();
    
    /**
     * Returns the score of the most recently fetched item from this iterator
     * (from {@link #next()}). The range of the returned values is up to the
     * {@link Index} implementation to dictate. 
     * @return the score of the most recently fetched item from this iterator.
     */
    float currentScore();
}