jdsl.core.api
Interface Dictionary
- All Known Subinterfaces:
- OrderedDictionary
- public abstract interface Dictionary
- extends KeyBasedContainer
A KeyBasedContainer which provides element lookup based upon search keys.
- Author:
- John Kloss, Mark Handy
|
Field Summary |
static Locator |
NO_SUCH_KEY
Locator returned by find(.) when the key requested is not present
in the Dictionary. |
|
Method Summary |
Locator |
find(java.lang.Object key)
Returns a Locator mapped to the search key. |
java.util.Enumeration |
findAll(java.lang.Object key)
Returns an Enumeration of Locators mapped to the search key. |
NO_SUCH_KEY
public static final Locator NO_SUCH_KEY
- Locator returned by find(.) when the key requested is not present
in the Dictionary. Note that dictionaries have
special values returned from lookup methods, rather than exceptions,
when the lookup fails.
find
public Locator find(java.lang.Object key)
throws InvalidKeyException
- Returns a Locator mapped to the search key. There is no guarantee that
the mapping of this Locator to
key is unique-- there may
be many Locators mapped to the same key depending on the particular
implementation of this Dictionary. Furthermore, there may be no
such element mapped to key in which case the Locator
returned will be NO_SUCH_KEY, which is invalid. That is, it
does not reference an element in any Container and cannot be used.
- Parameters:
key - The key used to search for an element in this
Container.- Returns:
- A Locator mapped to
key. Note:
this Locator will be NO_SUCH_KEY, an
invalid locator, if the key is not found. - Throws:
- InvalidKeyException - If
key is not
of a type accepted by this Container (For example:
The key is not comparable by this Container).
findAll
public java.util.Enumeration findAll(java.lang.Object key)
throws InvalidKeyException
- Returns an Enumeration of Locators mapped to the search key. This
method is guaranteed to return all elements associated with
key. If there are no such elements then the Enumeration
is empty. There is no guaranteed of order of these
Locators.
- Parameters:
key - The key used to search for an element within
this Container.- Returns:
- An Enumeration of Locators mapped to
key
. Note: the Enumeration will be empty
if no such elements exist in the container. - Throws:
- InvalidKeyException - If
key is not
of a type accepted by this Container (For example:
The key is not comparable by this Container).