com.davidbracewell.hermes

Class AttributeType

java.lang.Object

com.davidbracewell.EnumValue

com.davidbracewell.hermes.AttributeType

All Implemented Interfaces:

AnnotatableType, com.davidbracewell.Tag, Serializable, Comparable<com.davidbracewell.EnumValue>

public final class AttributeType
extends com.davidbracewell.EnumValue
implements AnnotatableType

An Attribute represents a name and value type. Attributes are crated via the create(String) or the create(String, Class) static methods. The value type of an attribute is either defined via the create method or via a config parameter using a value type (see ValueType for information of defining the type). Attributes that do not have a defined type default to being Strings. An attribute can define a custom codec (AttributeValueCodec*) for encoding and decoding its value using the codec property, e.g. Attribute.NAME.codec=fully.qualified.codec.name. Note that the Attribute class only represents the name and type of an attribute.

Attribute names are normalized so that an Attribute created with the name partofspeech and one created with the name PartOfSpeech are equal (see DynamicEnum for normalization information).

When attributes are written to a structured format their type is checked against what is defined. Differences in type will by default cause ignore the attribute and not write it to file. You can set Attribute.ignoreTypeChecks to false to ensure the type and throw an IllegalArgumentException when there is a mismatch.

Author:

David B. Bracewell

See Also:

Serialized Form

Method Summary

Modifier and Type	Method and Description
static AttributeType	create(String name) Creates an attribute with the given name.
static AttributeType	create(String name, Class<?> valueType) Creates a new attribute with the given name and value type
com.davidbracewell.reflection.ValueType	getValueType() Gets class information for the type of values this attribute is expected to have.
static boolean	isDefined(String name) Determine if a name is an existing Attribute
String	type() The type (Annotation, Attribute, Relation)
static AttributeType	valueOf(String name) Gets the attribute associated with a string.
static Collection<AttributeType>	values() The current collection of known attributes

Methods inherited from class com.davidbracewell.EnumValue

canEqual, compareTo, equals, hashCode, isInstance, name, toString

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

clone, finalize, getClass, notify, notifyAll, wait, wait, wait

Methods inherited from interface com.davidbracewell.hermes.AnnotatableType

canonicalName, getAnnotator, name

Methods inherited from interface com.davidbracewell.Tag

isInstance

Method Detail

create

public static AttributeType create(String name,
                                   @NonNull
                                   Class<?> valueType)

Creates a new attribute with the given name and value type

Parameters:

name - the name of the attribute

valueType - the type of attribute's value

Returns:

the attribute

Throws:

IllegalArgumentException - If the name is invalid or an attribute exists with this name, but a differenty value type.

create

public static AttributeType create(String name)

Creates an attribute with the given name.

Parameters:

name - the name of the attribute

Returns:

the attribute

Throws:

IllegalArgumentException - If the name is invalid

isDefined

public static boolean isDefined(String name)

Determine if a name is an existing Attribute

Parameters:

name - the name

Returns:

True if it exists, otherwise False

valueOf

public static AttributeType valueOf(String name)

Gets the attribute associated with a string.

Parameters:

name - the name as a string

Returns:

the attribute for the string

Throws:

IllegalArgumentException - if the name is not a valid attribute

values

public static Collection<AttributeType> values()

The current collection of known attributes

Returns:

All known attribute names

type

public String type()

Description copied from interface: AnnotatableType

The type (Annotation, Attribute, Relation)

Specified by:

type in interface AnnotatableType

Returns:

the type

getValueType

public com.davidbracewell.reflection.ValueType getValueType()

Gets class information for the type of values this attribute is expected to have. Types are defined via configuration as follows: Attribute.NAME.type = class. If not defined String.class will be returned.

Returns:

The class associated with this attributes values