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Interface benno.sort.Ordering

public interface Ordering
An implementation of this interface represents an ordering of Objects.
The ordering does not have to be defined between all pairs of objects.
If an ordering is not defined between two objects, an exception should be thrown.
For example, an IntegerOrdering cannot compare an Integer with a GridBagLayout.
The = is used for ordering, not testing for equality, and merely means that the two objects occupy the same place in the ordering - it does not imply that they are equal.
For example, an ordering by magnitude should say the -5 = 5, even though -5 != 5.
It should also say that two Integer objects are equal if their stored value is equal, not if they are the same object.

Version:
$Revision: 1.4 $

Method Index

 o compare(Object, Object)
This function should order a and b.

Methods

 o compare
 public abstract int compare(Object a,
                             Object b)
This function should order a and b. It should return:
-1 if a is before b
0 if a is ranked equally to b
1 if a is greater than b


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