001/*
002 * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
003 * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
004 * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
005 * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
006 * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
007 * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
008 *
009 *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
010 *
011 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
012 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
013 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
014 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
015 * limitations under the License.
016 */
017package org.apache.commons.math3.genetics;
018
019import org.apache.commons.math3.exception.NumberIsTooLargeException;
020
021
022/**
023 * A collection of chromosomes that facilitates generational evolution.
024 *
025 * @since 2.0
026 */
027public interface Population extends Iterable<Chromosome> {
028    /**
029     * Access the current population size.
030     * @return the current population size.
031     */
032    int getPopulationSize();
033
034    /**
035     * Access the maximum population size.
036     * @return the maximum population size.
037     */
038    int getPopulationLimit();
039
040    /**
041     * Start the population for the next generation.
042     * @return the beginnings of the next generation.
043     */
044    Population nextGeneration();
045
046    /**
047     * Add the given chromosome to the population.
048     * @param chromosome the chromosome to add.
049     * @throws NumberIsTooLargeException if the population would exceed the population limit when adding
050     *   this chromosome
051     */
052    void addChromosome(Chromosome chromosome) throws NumberIsTooLargeException;
053
054    /**
055     * Access the fittest chromosome in this population.
056     * @return the fittest chromosome.
057     */
058    Chromosome getFittestChromosome();
059}