org.apache.uima.cas
Interface FSIndex<T extends FeatureStructure>

All Superinterfaces:
Iterable<T>
All Known Subinterfaces:
AnnotationIndex<T>

public interface FSIndex<T extends FeatureStructure>
extends Iterable<T>

Feature structure index access interface.

Notice that each feature structure index uses its own ordering relation that will usually be different from index to index. In particular, equality with respect to the index ordering will in general not imply object identity for the feature structures.

We currently support three different kinds of indexes: sorted, set and bag indexes. The default index is a sorted index. In a sorted index, all FSs that are committed are entered, even if they are duplicates of already existing FSs. The index is sorted in the sense that iterators will output FSs in sorted order according to the comparator for that index. The order of FSs that are equal wrt the comparator is arbitrary but fixed. That is, if you iterate over the same index several times, you will see the same relative order of FSs every time. We also guarantee that reverse iterators will produce exactly the reverse sequence of forward iteration.

A set index will contain no duplicates of the same type, where a duplicate is defined by the indexing comparator. That is, if you commit two feature structures of the same type that are equal wrt the indexing comparator, only the first one will be entered into the index. Note that you can still have duplicates wrt the indexing order if they are of a different type. A set index is not guaranteed to be sorted.

A bag index finally simply stores everything, without any guaranteed order. Our current implementation works such that for any two FSs of the same type, they will be returned in the order in which they are committed (FIFO style). Note that any operation like find() or FSIterator.moveTo() will not produce useful results on bag indexes, since bag indexes do not honor comparators. Only use a bag index if you want very fast adding and will have to iterate over the whole index anyway.


Field Summary
static int BAG_INDEX
          Indexing strategy: bag index.
static int DEFAULT_BAG_INDEX
          Special indexes used by the framework to implement FSIndexRepository.getAllIndexedFS(Type).
static int SET_INDEX
          Indexing strategy: set index.
static int SORTED_INDEX
          Indexing strategy: sorted index.
 
Method Summary
 int compare(FeatureStructure fs1, FeatureStructure fs2)
          Compare two feature structures according to the ordering relation of the index.
 boolean contains(FeatureStructure fs)
          Check if the index contains an element equal to the given feature structure according to the ordering of the index.
 FeatureStructure find(FeatureStructure fs)
          Find an entry in the index equal to the given feature structure according to the ordering of the index.
 int getIndexingStrategy()
          Return the indexing strategy.
 Type getType()
          Return the type of feature structures this index contains.
 FSIterator<T> iterator()
          Return an iterator over the index.
 FSIterator<T> iterator(FeatureStructure fs)
          Return an iterator over the index.
 int size()
          Return the number of feature structures in this index.
 

Field Detail

SORTED_INDEX

static final int SORTED_INDEX
Indexing strategy: sorted index. A sorted index contains all elements, including duplicates. Iterators over sorted indexes will return elements in sorted order.

See Also:
Constant Field Values

SET_INDEX

static final int SET_INDEX
Indexing strategy: set index. A set index contains no duplicates of the same type, where a duplicate is defined by the indexing comparator. A set index is not guaranteed to be sorted.

See Also:
Constant Field Values

BAG_INDEX

static final int BAG_INDEX
Indexing strategy: bag index. A bag index contains all elements, in no particular order.

See Also:
Constant Field Values

DEFAULT_BAG_INDEX

static final int DEFAULT_BAG_INDEX
Special indexes used by the framework to implement FSIndexRepository.getAllIndexedFS(Type). Not user-definable.

See Also:
Constant Field Values
Method Detail

size

int size()
Return the number of feature structures in this index.

Returns:
The number of FSs in this index.

getType

Type getType()
Return the type of feature structures this index contains.

Returns:
The type of feature structures in this index.

contains

boolean contains(FeatureStructure fs)
Check if the index contains an element equal to the given feature structure according to the ordering of the index. Note that this is in general not the same as feature structure identity.

Parameters:
fs - The FS we're looking for.
Returns:
true if the index contains such an element.

find

FeatureStructure find(FeatureStructure fs)
Find an entry in the index equal to the given feature structure according to the ordering of the index. Note that this is in general not the same as feature structure identity.

Parameters:
fs - The FS we're looking for.
Returns:
A FS equal to fs, or null if no such FS exists.
See Also:
FSIterator.moveTo(FeatureStructure)

compare

int compare(FeatureStructure fs1,
            FeatureStructure fs2)
Compare two feature structures according to the ordering relation of the index. If the input feature structures are not of the type of the index, the result is undefined.

Returns:
-1 if fs1 < fs2; 0 if fs1 = fs2; 1 else.

iterator

FSIterator<T> iterator()
Return an iterator over the index. The iterator will be set to the start position of the index.

Specified by:
iterator in interface Iterable<T extends FeatureStructure>
Returns:
An iterator over the index.

iterator

FSIterator<T> iterator(FeatureStructure fs)
Return an iterator over the index. The position of the iterator will be set such that the feature structure returned by a call to the iterator's get() method is greater than or equal to fs, and any previous FS is less than FS. If no such position exists, the iterator will be invalid.

Parameters:
fs - The feature structure at which the iterator should be positioned.
Returns:
An iterator positioned at fs, if it exists. An invalid iterator, else.

getIndexingStrategy

int getIndexingStrategy()
Return the indexing strategy.

Returns:
One of SORTED_INDEX, BAG_INDEX or SET_INDEX.


Copyright © 2010 The Apache Software Foundation. All Rights Reserved.