com.sas.util
Interface ApplyInterface

All Known Implementing Classes:

CompositeCommand, PrintContents, CompositeDynamicAttributeCommand, ChangeEnabledStateCommand, ChangeCursorCommand

public interface ApplyInterface

An interface which allows the caller to perform some action on an object. ApplyInterface is normally used to apply some action to all elements of a collection; see StaticCollectionInterface.apply(com.sas.util.ApplyInterface). For example, to print the contents of a collection, create an instance of a PrintContents and apply it to a collection:

    StaticCollectionInterface c =  ...some collection...;
    PrintContents printer = new PrintContents();
    c.apply(printer);
 

ApplyInterface can be used to alter all items in a collection, or to search collections for items matching specific conditions, etc. Ths operation can be done without knowledge of how to access individual items in the collection, or without having to obtain an Enumeration, which requires extra object allocations.

Field Summary

static short	ABORT A return code from the apply(java.lang.Object) method which indicates that the action should not continue for other objects.
static short	CONTINUE A return code from the apply(java.lang.Object) method which indicates that the action should continue for other objects.

Method Summary

int	apply(Object o) Does something with/to an object

Field Detail

CONTINUE

public static final short CONTINUE

A return code from the apply(java.lang.Object) method which indicates that the action should continue for other objects.

ABORT

public static final short ABORT

A return code from the apply(java.lang.Object) method which indicates that the action should not continue for other objects. For example, if you implement an object to search a collection for an item that matches some criteria, when the item is found, your apply method can return ABORT to indicate that the collection can abort the searh and not apply your search object to the remaining items in the collection.

Method Detail

apply

public int apply(Object o)

Does something with/to an object

Parameters:

object - The object which should be used

Returns:

one of ABORT or CONTINUE. The apply() method should return ABORT if it wishes to abort or short circuit an iteration/application of the ApplyInterface to items in a collection. Normally, this method would return CONTINUE to indicate normal continuation of the iteration.