Interface ComparableIntPointerIterator<F extends FeatureStructure>

All Superinterfaces:
Comparable<FSIntIteratorImplBase<F>>, IntPointerIterator
All Known Implementing Classes:
FSIntIteratorImplBase, IntIterator4bag, IntIterator4set, IntIterator4sorted

public interface ComparableIntPointerIterator<F extends FeatureStructure> extends IntPointerIterator, Comparable<FSIntIteratorImplBase<F>>
Interface for a comparable IntPointerIterator. This allows two iterators to be compared with each other. Two IntIterators are compared according to the element that would be returned by the next call to next(). The purpose of this is for keeping multiple iterators, one for each subtype of a type, in a sorted order, when desiring to iterate over a type and its subtypes, in a combined merged order. This is only needed for iterators over Sorted indexes. Iterators over Bags and Sets have no ordering requirement. (Note, however, that backwards compatibility may require this) All ComparableIntPointerIterators must implement the ConcurrentModificationException mechanism, so that interface is included