org.htmlparser.util.sort
Interface Ordered

All Known Implementing Classes:

CharacterReference, Cursor

public interface Ordered

Describes an object that knows about ordering. Implementors must have a comparison function, which imposes a partial ordering on some collection of objects. Ordered objects can be passed to a sort method (such as org.htmlparser.util.sort.Sort) to allow precise control over the sort order.

An set of elements S is partially ordered if and only if e1.compare(e2)==0 implies that e1.equals(e2) for every e1 and e2 in S.

This all goes away in JDK 1.2.

For use with java.lang.Comparable from JDK 1.2:

 public int compare (Object o1, Object o2)
 {
     return (((Ordered)o1).compare (o2));
 }
 

See Also:

Sort

Method Summary

int	compare(Object that) Compares this object with another for order.

Method Detail

compare

int compare(Object that)

Compares this object with another for order. Returns a negative integer, zero, or a positive integer as this object is less than, equal to, or greater than the second.

The implementor must ensure that sgn(x.compare(y)) == -sgn(y.compare(x)) for all x and y. (This implies that x.compare(y) must throw an exception if and only if y.compare(x) throws an exception.)

The implementor must also ensure that the relation is transitive: ((x.compare(y)>0) && (y.compare(z)>0)) implies x.compare(z)>0.

Finally, the implementer must ensure that x.compare(y)==0 implies that sgn(x.compare(z))==sgn(y.compare(z)) for all z.

Parameters:

that - The object to compare this object against.

Returns:

A negative integer, zero, or a positive integer as this object is less than, equal to, or greater than the second.

Throws:

ClassCastException - The arguments type prevents it from being compared by this Ordered.