org.inxar.syntacs.grammar.regular
Interface Union

All Superinterfaces:
Cloneable, RegularExpression
All Known Implementing Classes:
REUnion

public interface Union
extends RegularExpression

The Union interface is an abstraction over the RegularExpression alternation object classically known syntactically by the pipe '|'. An Union is a discrete regular expression that contains an arbitrary number of 'alternatives', any of which if matched will satisfy the expression.


Method Summary
 Union addAllele(RegularExpression e)
          Adds the given RegularExpression to the list of alternatives.
 int alleles()
          Returns the number of alternatives.
 RegularExpression[] getAlleles()
          Returns the list of alternatives which are currently in the set as an array.
 
Methods inherited from interface org.inxar.syntacs.grammar.regular.RegularExpression
clone, follow, getFirstSet, getLastSet, isNullable
 

Method Detail

addAllele

public Union addAllele(RegularExpression e)
Adds the given RegularExpression to the list of alternatives. If the alternative is already in the set of alternatives, no action is taken. This method returns the Union simply to support a coding style reminiscent of java.lang.StringBuffer.

getAlleles

public RegularExpression[] getAlleles()
Returns the list of alternatives which are currently in the set as an array.

alleles

public int alleles()
Returns the number of alternatives.