| /* |
| * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more contributor license |
| * agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with this work for additional information regarding |
| * copyright ownership. The ASF licenses this file to You 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.apache.geode.internal.lang; |
| |
| /** |
| * The Orderable interface defines a contract for classes whose Objects can be sorted, or ordered |
| * according to the order property of a Comparable type. |
| * <p/> |
| * |
| * @see java.lang.Comparable |
| * @since GemFire 6.8 |
| */ |
| public interface Orderable<T extends Comparable<T>> { |
| |
| /** |
| * Returns the value of the order property used in ordering instances of this implementing Object |
| * relative to other type compatible Object instances. The order property value can also be used |
| * in sorting operations, or in maintaining Orderable objects in ordered data structures like |
| * arrays or Lists, or even for defining a precedence not directly related order. |
| * <p/> |
| * |
| * @return a value that is Comparable to other value of the same type and defines the relative |
| * order of this Object instance to it's peers. |
| */ |
| T getOrder(); |
| |
| } |
