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.collections4;
018
019import java.util.Collection;
020
021/**
022 * Defines a map that holds a collection of values against each key.
023 * <p>
024 * A <code>MultiMap</code> is a Map with slightly different semantics.
025 * Putting a value into the map will add the value to a Collection at that key.
026 * Getting a value will return a Collection, holding all the values put to that key.
027 * <p>
028 * For example:
029 * <pre>
030 * MultiMap mhm = new MultiValueMap();
031 * mhm.put(key, "A");
032 * mhm.put(key, "B");
033 * mhm.put(key, "C");
034 * Collection coll = (Collection) mhm.get(key);</pre>
035 * <p>
036 * <code>coll</code> will be a collection containing "A", "B", "C".
037 * <p>
038 * NOTE: Additional methods were added to this interface in Commons Collections 3.1.
039 * These were added solely for documentation purposes and do not change the interface
040 * as they were defined in the superinterface <code>Map</code> anyway.
041 *
042 * @param <K> the type of the keys in this map
043 * @param <V> the type of the values in this map
044 *
045 * @since 2.0
046 * @deprecated since 4.1, use {@link MultiValuedMap} instead
047 */
048@Deprecated
049public interface MultiMap<K, V> extends IterableMap<K, Object> {
050
051    /**
052     * Removes a specific value from map.
053     * <p>
054     * The item is removed from the collection mapped to the specified key.
055     * Other values attached to that key are unaffected.
056     * <p>
057     * If the last value for a key is removed, implementations typically
058     * return <code>null</code> from a subsequent <code>get(Object)</code>, however
059     * they may choose to return an empty collection.
060     *
061     * @param key  the key to remove from
062     * @param item  the item to remove
063     * @return {@code true} if the mapping was removed, {@code false} otherwise
064     * @throws UnsupportedOperationException if the map is unmodifiable
065     * @throws ClassCastException if the key or value is of an invalid type
066     * @throws NullPointerException if the key or value is null and null is invalid
067     * @since 4.0 (signature in previous releases: V remove(K, V))
068     */
069    boolean removeMapping(K key, V item);
070
071    //-----------------------------------------------------------------------
072    /**
073     * Gets the number of keys in this map.
074     * <p>
075     * Implementations typically return only the count of keys in the map
076     * This cannot be mandated due to backwards compatibility of this interface.
077     *
078     * @return the number of key-collection mappings in this map
079     */
080    @Override
081    int size();
082
083    /**
084     * Gets the collection of values associated with the specified key.
085     * <p>
086     * The returned value will implement <code>Collection</code>. Implementations
087     * are free to declare that they return <code>Collection</code> subclasses
088     * such as <code>List</code> or <code>Set</code>.
089     * <p>
090     * Implementations typically return <code>null</code> if no values have
091     * been mapped to the key, however the implementation may choose to
092     * return an empty collection.
093     * <p>
094     * Implementations may choose to return a clone of the internal collection.
095     *
096     * @param key  the key to retrieve
097     * @return the <code>Collection</code> of values, implementations should
098     *  return <code>null</code> for no mapping, but may return an empty collection
099     * @throws ClassCastException if the key is of an invalid type
100     * @throws NullPointerException if the key is null and null keys are invalid
101     */
102    @Override
103    Object get(Object key); // Cannot use get(K key) as that does not properly implement Map#get
104
105    /**
106     * Checks whether the map contains the value specified.
107     * <p>
108     * Implementations typically check all collections against all keys for the value.
109     * This cannot be mandated due to backwards compatibility of this interface.
110     *
111     * @param value  the value to search for
112     * @return true if the map contains the value
113     * @throws ClassCastException if the value is of an invalid type
114     * @throws NullPointerException if the value is null and null value are invalid
115     */
116    @Override
117    boolean containsValue(Object value);
118
119    /**
120     * Adds the value to the collection associated with the specified key.
121     * <p>
122     * Unlike a normal <code>Map</code> the previous value is not replaced.
123     * Instead the new value is added to the collection stored against the key.
124     * The collection may be a <code>List</code>, <code>Set</code> or other
125     * collection dependent on implementation.
126     *
127     * @param key  the key to store against
128     * @param value  the value to add to the collection at the key
129     * @return typically the value added if the map changed and null if the map did not change
130     * @throws UnsupportedOperationException if the map is unmodifiable
131     * @throws ClassCastException if the key or value is of an invalid type
132     * @throws NullPointerException if the key or value is null and null is invalid
133     * @throws IllegalArgumentException if the key or value is invalid
134     */
135    @Override
136    Object put(K key, Object value);
137
138    /**
139     * Removes all values associated with the specified key.
140     * <p>
141     * Implementations typically return <code>null</code> from a subsequent
142     * <code>get(Object)</code>, however they may choose to return an empty collection.
143     *
144     * @param key  the key to remove values from
145     * @return the <code>Collection</code> of values removed, implementations should
146     *  return <code>null</code> for no mapping found, but may return an empty collection
147     * @throws UnsupportedOperationException if the map is unmodifiable
148     * @throws ClassCastException if the key is of an invalid type
149     * @throws NullPointerException if the key is null and null keys are invalid
150     */
151    @Override
152    Object remove(Object key); // Cannot use remove(K key) as that does not properly implement Map#remove
153
154    /**
155     * Gets a collection containing all the values in the map.
156     * <p>
157     * Implementations typically return a collection containing the combination
158     * of values from all keys.
159     * This cannot be mandated due to backwards compatibility of this interface.
160     *
161     * @return a collection view of the values contained in this map
162     */
163    @Override
164    Collection<Object> values();
165
166}