Package org.refcodes.console

Interface Syntaxable

All Superinterfaces:

org.refcodes.component.Resetable, SyntaxUsage

All Known Subinterfaces:

Condition, Operand<T>, Option<T>, Switch

All Known Implementing Classes:

AbstractCondition, AbstractOperand, AbstractOption, AndConditionImpl, EnumOptionImpl, ForceSwitchImpl, HelpSwitchImpl, IntegerOptionImpl, OptionalConditionImpl, OrConditionImpl, QuietSwitchImpl, StringOperandImpl, StringOptionImpl, SwitchImpl, SysInfoSwitchImpl, VerboseSwitchImpl, XorConditionImpl

public interface Syntaxable
extends org.refcodes.component.Resetable, SyntaxUsage

A Syntaxable defines the methods at least required when building a command line arguments syntax tree for traversing the syntax tree; either for parsing command line arguments or for constructing the command line arguments syntax. By providing various implementations of the Syntaxable's subclasses such as Operand, Option or Condition, a command line arguments syntax tree can be constructed. This syntax tree can be use to create a human readable (verbose) command line arguments syntax and to parse an array of command line arguments for determining the Operands', the Switches' or the Options' values.

Method Summary

Modifier and Type	Method	Description
<V> V	get(String aAlias)	Searches for a value being set for the given for given alias in the syntax tree parsing the command line arguments; if a node in the syntax tree has a value for the given alias, then this value is returned.
List<? extends Operand<?>>	parseArgs(String[] aArgs)	Parses the provided command line arguments and determines the according values by evaluating this Syntaxable instance or, in case of being a node in the syntax tree (such as a Condition, traversing the child Syntaxable instances' parseArgs(String[]) methods.
String	toState()	The toState() method might be used by the Object.toString() method and prints out the state of the syntaxable and (if any) its children.
String	toSyntax(SyntaxNotation aSyntaxNotation)	This method is to be called from inside the Syntaxable hierarchy; use the method SyntaxUsage.toUsage(SyntaxNotation) in case you invoke syntax retrieval from the root Syntaxable.

Methods inherited from interface org.refcodes.component.Resetable

reset

Methods inherited from interface org.refcodes.console.SyntaxUsage

toUsage, toUsage

Method Detail

toSyntax

String toSyntax(SyntaxNotation aSyntaxNotation)

This method is to be called from inside the Syntaxable hierarchy; use the method SyntaxUsage.toUsage(SyntaxNotation) in case you invoke syntax retrieval from the root Syntaxable. Returns the human readable (verbose) syntax of this Syntaxable instance including, in case of being a node in the syntax tree (such as a Condition, the syntax of the child Syntaxable instances. ATTENTION: As of different parenthesis settings for some notations regarding the root Syntaxable and the child Syntaxables, the method toSyntax(SyntaxNotation) is called from inside the Syntaxable hierarchy. In case the syntax is to be retrieved from the root Syntaxable, then the applicable method to be called is SyntaxUsage.toUsage(SyntaxNotation), as for some notations it will for example not create the most outer braces.

Parameters:

aSyntaxNotation - The syntax notation used for generating the command line arguments syntax.

Returns:

The human readable (verbose) command line arguments syntax.

parseArgs

List<? extends Operand<?>> parseArgs(String[] aArgs)
                              throws UnknownArgsException,
                                     AmbiguousArgsException,
                                     ParseArgsException

Parses the provided command line arguments and determines the according values by evaluating this Syntaxable instance or, in case of being a node in the syntax tree (such as a Condition, traversing the child Syntaxable instances' parseArgs(String[]) methods. In case of successfully parsing this Syntaxable and / or the child Syntaxable instances, the evaluated command line arguments are returned: Depending on the Syntaxable subclasses representing the evaluated command line arguments, instances of Switch classes, Option classes or Operand classes may be found in the result. In case of parsing failure, an according exception is thrown. ATTENTION: This method does not test for superfluous command line arguments being passed; e.g. command line arguments not being evaluated by any of the Syntaxable instance being traversed. This method is commonly used by a root Syntaxable's ArgsParser.evalArgs(String[]) method, which delegates to the parseArgs(String[]) method and after which it determines whether there are superfluous arguments to be taken care of (by throwing an according exception). Business logic therefore should invoke the root node's parseArgs(String[]) method as ignoring superfluous command line arguments will cause unexpected behavior from the point of view of the invoker.

Parameters:

aArgs - The command line arguments to be parsed.

Returns:

The list of evaluated command line arguments being instances of the Operand interfaces or its sub-types.

Throws:

UnknownArgsException - Thrown in case not one command line argument matched regarding the provided args vs. the expected args.

AmbiguousArgsException - Thrown in case at least one command line argument is ambiguous regarding expected args vs. provided args.

ParseArgsException - Thrown in case the provided command line arguments do not respect the required syntax or cannot be converted to the required type

get

<V> V get(String aAlias)

Searches for a value being set for the given for given alias in the syntax tree parsing the command line arguments; if a node in the syntax tree has a value for the given alias, then this value is returned.

Type Parameters:

V - The type of the value being expected.

Parameters:

aAlias - The alias for which to seek for a value being set.

Returns:

The according value or null if none has been set for the given alias.

toState

String toState()

The toState() method might be used by the Object.toString() method and prints out the state of the syntaxable and (if any) its children. Even in case parsing command line arguments failed, the state till failure can be inspected with this method.

Returns:

The state of this Syntaxable instance and (if any) its children.