Interface PatternElement

All Known Implementing Classes:

ChoiceGroup, CompoundElement, ExpressionElement, OptionalGroup, RegexGroup, TextElement

public interface PatternElement

The superclass of all elements of a pattern.

Method Summary

Modifier and Type	Method	Description
static List<PatternElement>	flatten(PatternElement element)
static List<String>	getKeywords(PatternElement element)	This method should return all text components that will always be present, no matter how the pattern is used.
static List<PatternElement>	getPossibleInputs(List<PatternElement> elements)
int	match(String s, int index, MatchContext context)	Attempts to match the PatternElement to a string at a specified index.

Method Details

match

int match(String s,
 int index,
 MatchContext context)

Attempts to match the PatternElement to a string at a specified index. About the index, make sure to never increment the index by some arbitrary value when returning

Parameters:

s - the string to match this PatternElement against

index - the index of the string at which this PatternElement should be matched

Returns:

the index at which the matching should continue afterwards if successful. Otherwise, -1

flatten

static List<PatternElement> flatten(PatternElement element)

getKeywords

static List<String> getKeywords(PatternElement element)

This method should return all text components that will always be present, no matter how the pattern is used.

Parameters:

element - the element

Returns:

the always-present text elements of this pattern

getPossibleInputs

static List<PatternElement> getPossibleInputs(List<PatternElement> elements)