All Known Implementing Classes:

CollectionConstraint.AllValuesIn, CollectionConstraint.And, CollectionConstraint.Contains, CollectionConstraint.Or
```
public interface CollectionConstraint
```
Used by AnnotationType to represent the constraint on the collection of values in a property-slot. CollectionConstraints usually use a PropertyConstraint to validate the individual elements. Use one or more of the built-in implementations to build new AnnotationTypes.

Since:

1.3

Author:

Thomas Down, Matthew Pocock

Nested Class Summary

Nested Classes
Modifier and Type	Interface	Description
`static class`	`CollectionConstraint.AllValuesIn`	CollectionConstraint which validates all members of a Collection.
`static class`	`CollectionConstraint.And`	A collection constraint that accpepts collections iff they are accepted by both child constraints.
`static class`	`CollectionConstraint.Contains`	CollectionConstraint which validates a portion of a Collection.
`static class`	`CollectionConstraint.Or`	A collection constraint that accepts items iff they are accepted by either child constraints.

Field Summary

Fields
Modifier and Type	Field	Description
`static CollectionConstraint`	`ANY`	`ANY` is a constraint which accepts a property for addition under all conditions.
`static CollectionConstraint`	`EMPTY`	`EMPTY` is a constraint which only accepts the empty set.
`static CollectionConstraint`	`NONE`	`NONE` is a constraint which accepts no value for a property under any condition.

Method Summary

All Methods Instance Methods Abstract Methods
Modifier and Type	Method	Description
`boolean`	`accept(Object values)`	`accept` returns true if the value fulfills the constraint.
`boolean`	`subConstraintOf(CollectionConstraint subConstraint)`	`subConstraintOf` returns true if the constraint is a sub-constraint.
`boolean`	`validateAddValue(Collection current, Object newValue)`	Return `true` iff the Collection formed by adding `newValue` to `current` would be accepted by this constraint.
`boolean`	`validateRemoveValue(Collection current, Object victim)`	Return `true` iff the Collection formed by removing `newValue` from `current` would be accepted by this constraint.

- Field Detail
  - ANY
```
static final CollectionConstraint ANY
```
    ANY is a constraint which accepts a property for addition under all conditions. Whenever a CollectionConstraint is needed and you want to allow any value there
  - EMPTY
```
static final CollectionConstraint EMPTY
```
    EMPTY is a constraint which only accepts the empty set. Use this to indicate that a property must be undefined
  - NONE
```
static final CollectionConstraint NONE
```
    NONE is a constraint which accepts no value for a property under any condition. This value indicates an impossible condition. It may be returned by methods such as AnnotationTools.intersection to indicate that NO values of a property (include undefined) are valid.
- Method Detail
  - accept
```
boolean accept(Object values)
```
    accept returns true if the value fulfills the constraint.
    
    Parameters:
    
    values - a Collection to check.
    
    Returns:
    
    true if the values are acceptable powerUser Manually compare items with the CollectionConstraint. Node: this will ususaly be done for you in an AnnotationType instance
  - subConstraintOf
```
boolean subConstraintOf(CollectionConstraint subConstraint)
```
    subConstraintOf returns true if the constraint is a sub-constraint.
    
    A pair of constraints super and sub are in a superConstraint/subConstraint relationship if every object accepted by sub is also accepted by super. To put it another way, if instanceOf was used as a set-membership indicator function over some set of objects, then the set produced by super would be a superset of that produced by sub.
    
    It is not expected that constraints will neccesarily maintain references to super/sub types. It will be more usual to infer this relationship by introspecting the constraints themselves. For example, CollectionConstraint.ByClass will infer subConstraintOf by looking at the possible class of all items matching subConstraint.
    
    Parameters:
    
    subConstraint - a CollectionConstraint to check.
    
    Returns:
    
    a boolean. Usefull when attempting to compare two constraints to see if it is necisary to retain both. You may want to check the more general or the more specific constraint only.
  - validateAddValue
```
boolean validateAddValue(Collection current,
                         Object newValue)
```
    Return true iff the Collection formed by adding newValue to current would be accepted by this constraint. Implementations may not assume that current is valid.
    
    Parameters:
    
    current - a Collection containing the current values
    
    newValue - the new value to add
    
    Returns:
    
    true if adding the new value will result in an acceptable property
  - validateRemoveValue
```
boolean validateRemoveValue(Collection current,
                            Object victim)
```
    Return true iff the Collection formed by removing newValue from current would be accepted by this constraint. Implementations may not assume that current is valid. However, current will already have been checked to ensure that it contains victim.
    
    Parameters:
    
    current - a Collection containing the current values
    
    victim - the value to remove
    
    Returns:
    
    true if removing the victim will result in an acceptable property value set

Interface CollectionConstraint

Nested Class Summary

Field Summary

Method Summary

Field Detail

ANY

EMPTY

NONE

Method Detail

accept

subConstraintOf

validateAddValue

validateRemoveValue