Term (biojava-legacy 1.9.5 API)

All Superinterfaces:

Annotatable, Changeable

All Known Subinterfaces:

ComparableTerm, ComparableTriple, OntologyTerm, RemoteTerm, Triple, Variable

All Known Implementing Classes:

AbstractTerm, IntegerOntology.IntTerm, OntologyTerm.Impl, RemoteTerm.Impl, SimpleComparableTerm, SimpleComparableTriple, Term.Impl, Triple.Impl, Variable.Impl
```
public interface Term
extends Annotatable
```
A term in an ontology. This has an Annotation which can be used for storing additional human-displayable information. It is strongly recommended that the Annotation is not used for any machine-readable data -- this should be represented by relations in the ontology instead.
Terms are things that represent things. They are the same sort of thing as a Java object or a prolog atom. A sub-set of terms are themselves relations. This means that they are used to describe associations between pairs of terms. Since all terms can be described, it is possible (and indeed encouraged) to describe relations. As a minimum, you should consider saying if they are identity or partial order relations, or if they are transitive, reflexive, symmetrical, anti-symmetrical or anything else you know about them. This gives the inference engine some chance of working out what is going on.

Since:

1.4

Author:

Thomas Down, Matthew Pocock

See Also:

ComparableTerm

Nested Class Summary

Nested Classes
Modifier and Type Interface Description

static class Term.Impl
Simple in-memory implementation of an ontology term.
- Nested classes/interfaces inherited from interface org.biojava.bio.Annotatable
  Annotatable.AnnotationForwarder

Field Summary

Fields
Modifier and Type Field Description

static ChangeType ONTOLOGY
ChangeType which indicates that this term's ontology has been altered
- Fields inherited from interface org.biojava.bio.Annotatable
  ANNOTATION

Method Summary

All Methods Instance Methods Abstract Methods
Modifier and Type	Method	Description
`void`	`addSynonym(Object synonym)`	Add a synonym for this term.
`String`	`getDescription()`	Return a human-readable description of this term, or the empty string if none is available.
`String`	`getName()`	Return the name of this term.
`Ontology`	`getOntology()`	Return the ontology in which this term exists.
`Object[]`	`getSynonyms()`	Return the synonyms for this term.
`void`	`removeSynonym(Object synonym)`	Remove a synonym for this term.
`void`	`setDescription(String description)`	set the description of the term;

Methods inherited from interface org.biojava.bio.Annotatable
getAnnotation

Methods inherited from interface org.biojava.utils.Changeable
addChangeListener, addChangeListener, isUnchanging, removeChangeListener, removeChangeListener

- Field Detail
  - ONTOLOGY
```
static final ChangeType ONTOLOGY
```
    ChangeType which indicates that this term's ontology has been altered
- Method Detail
  - getName
```
String getName()
```
    Return the name of this term.
    
    Returns:
    
    the name of the term
  - getDescription
```
String getDescription()
```
    Return a human-readable description of this term, or the empty string if none is available.
    
    Returns:
    
    the description of the term
  - setDescription
```
void setDescription(String description)
```
    set the description of the term;
    
    Parameters:
    
    description -
  - getOntology
```
Ontology getOntology()
```
    Return the ontology in which this term exists.
    
    Returns:
    
    the ontology
  - getSynonyms
```
Object[] getSynonyms()
```
    Return the synonyms for this term.
    
    Returns:
    
    the synonyms
  - addSynonym
```
void addSynonym(Object synonym)
```
    Add a synonym for this term.
    
    Parameters:
    
    synonym - the synonym
  - removeSynonym
```
void removeSynonym(Object synonym)
```
    Remove a synonym for this term.
    
    Parameters:
    
    synonym -