org.springframework.core.Ordered Maven / Gradle / Ivy
/*
* Copyright 2002-2005 the original author or authors.
*
* 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.springframework.core;
/**
* Interface that can be implemented by objects that should be
* orderable, e.g. in a Collection. The actual order can be
* interpreted as prioritization, the first object (with the
* lowest order value) having the highest priority.
*
* @author Juergen Hoeller
* @since 07.04.2003
*/
public interface Ordered {
/**
* Return the order value of this object,
* higher value meaning greater in terms of sorting.
* Normally starting with 0 or 1, Integer.MAX_VALUE
* indicating greatest.
* Same order values will result in arbitrary positions
* for the affected objects.
*
* Higher value can be interpreted as lower priority,
* consequently the first object has highest priority
* (somewhat analogous to Servlet "load-on-startup" values).
*
* @return the order value
*/
public int getOrder();
}