sdk/lib/core/set.dart

// Copyright (c) 2011, the Dart project authors.  Please see the AUTHORS file
// for details. All rights reserved. Use of this source code is governed by a
// BSD-style license that can be found in the LICENSE file.

part of dart.core;

/**
 * A collection of objects in which each object can occur only once.
 *
 * That is, for each object of the element type, the object is either considered
 * to be in the set, or to _not_ be in the set.
 *
 * Set implementations may consider some elements indistinguishable. These
 * elements are treated as being the same for any operation on the set.
 *
 * The default [Set] implementation, [LinkedHashSet], considers objects
 * indistinguishable if they are equal with regard to
 * operator [Object.==].
 *
 * Iterating over elements of a set may be either unordered
 * or ordered in some way. Examples:
 *
 * * A [HashSet] is unordered, which means that its iteration order is
 *   uspecified,
 * * [LinkedHashSet] iterates in the insertion order of its elements, and
 * * a sorted set like [SplayTreeSet] iterates the elements in sorted order.
 *
 * It is generally not allowed to modify the set (add or remove elements) while
 * an operation on the set is being performed, for example during a call to
 * [forEach] or [containsAll]. Nor is it allowed to modify the set while
 * iterating either the set itself or any [Iterable] that is backed by the set,
 * such as the ones returned by methods like [where] and [map].
 */
abstract class Set<E> extends Iterable<E> implements EfficientLength {
  /**
   * Creates an empty [Set].
   *
   * The created [Set] is a plain [LinkedHashSet].
   * As such, it considers elements that are equal (using [==]) to be
   * indistinguishable, and requires them to have a compatible
   * [Object.hashCode] implementation.
   *
   * The set is equivalent to one created by `new LinkedHashSet<E>()`.
   */
  factory Set() = LinkedHashSet<E>;

  /**
   * Creates an empty identity [Set].
   *
   * The created [Set] is a [LinkedHashSet] that uses identity as equality
   * relation.
   *
   * The set is equivalent to one created by `new LinkedHashSet<E>.identity()`.
   */
  factory Set.identity() = LinkedHashSet<E>.identity;

  /**
   * Creates a [Set] that contains all [elements].
   *
   * All the [elements] should be assignable to [E].
   * The `elements` iterable itself can have any type,
   * so this constructor can be used to down-cast a `Set`, for example as:
   *
   *     Set<SuperType> superSet = ...;
   *     Set<SubType> subSet =
   *         new Set<SubType>.from(superSet.where((e) => e is SubType));
   *
   * The created [Set] is a [LinkedHashSet]. As such, it considers elements that
   * are equal (using [==]) to be indistinguishable, and requires them to
   * have a compatible [Object.hashCode] implementation.
   *
   * The set is equivalent to one created by
   * `new LinkedHashSet<E>.from(elements)`.
   */
  factory Set.from(Iterable elements) = LinkedHashSet<E>.from;

  /**
   * Provides an iterator that iterates over the elements of this set.
   *
   * The order of iteration is defined by the individual `Set` implementation,
   * but must be consistent between changes to the set.
   */
  Iterator<E> get iterator;

  /**
   * Returns true if [value] is in the set.
   */
  bool contains(Object value);

  /**
   * Adds [value] into the set. Returns `true` if [value] was added to the set.
   *
   * If [value] already exists, the set is not changed and `false` is returned.
   */
  bool add(E value);

  /**
   * Adds all [elements] to this Set.
   *
   * Equivalent to adding each element in [elements] using [add],
   * but some collections may be able to optimize it.
   */
  void addAll(Iterable<E> elements);

  /**
   * Removes [value] from the set. Returns true if [value] was
   * in the set. Returns false otherwise. The method has no effect
   * if [value] value was not in the set.
   */
  bool remove(Object value);

  /**
   * If an object equal to [object] is in the set, return it.
   *
   * Checks if there is an object in the set that is equal to [object].
   * If so, that object is returned, otherwise returns null.
   */
  E lookup(Object object);

  /**
   * Removes each element of [elements] from this set.
   */
  void removeAll(Iterable<Object> elements);

  /**
   * Removes all elements of this set that are not elements in [elements].
   *
   * Checks for each element of [elements] whether there is an element in this
   * set that is equal to it (according to `this.contains`), and if so, the
   * equal element in this set is retained, and elements that are not equal
   * to any element in `elements` are removed.
   */
  void retainAll(Iterable<Object> elements);

  /**
   * Removes all elements of this set that satisfy [test].
   */
  void removeWhere(bool test(E element));

  /**
   * Removes all elements of this set that fail to satisfy [test].
   */
  void retainWhere(bool test(E element));

  /**
   * Returns whether this Set contains all the elements of [other].
   */
  bool containsAll(Iterable<Object> other);

  /**
   * Returns a new set which is the intersection between this set and [other].
   *
   * That is, the returned set contains all the elements of this [Set] that
   * are also elements of [other] according to `other.contains`.
   */
  Set<E> intersection(Set<Object> other);

  /**
   * Returns a new set which contains all the elements of this set and [other].
   *
   * That is, the returned set contains all the elements of this [Set] and
   * all the elements of [other].
   */
  Set<E> union(Set<E> other);

  /**
   * Returns a new set with the the elements of this that are not in [other].
   *
   * That is, the returned set contains all the elements of this [Set] that
   * are not elements of [other] according to `other.contains`.
   */
  Set<E> difference(Set<E> other);

  /**
   * Removes all elements in the set.
   */
  void clear();

  /* Creates a [Set] with the same elements and behavior as this `Set`.
   *
   * The returned set behaves the same as this set
   * with regard to adding and removing elements.
   * It initially contains the same elements.
   * If this set specifies an ordering of the elements,
   * the returned set will have the same order.
   */
  Set<E> toSet();
}