/*
* Copyright (c) 2008-2010 "Neo Technology,"
* Network Engine for Objects in Lund AB [http://neotechnology.com]
*
* This file is part of Neo4j.
*
* Neo4j is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
* it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as
* published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the
* License, or (at your option) any later version.
*
* This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
* but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
* MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
* GNU Affero General Public License for more details.
*
* You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License
* along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
*/
package org.neo4j.graphmatching;
import org.neo4j.graphdb.Node;
import org.neo4j.graphdb.Relationship;
/**
* An interface which abstracts value matching. Examples of value matchers would be:
* exact matchi, regex match a.s.o. Also look at {@link CommonValueMatchers}.
*/
public interface ValueMatcher
{
/**
* Tries to match {@code value} to see if it matches an expected value.
* {@code value} is {@code null} if the property wasn't found on the
* {@link Node} or {@link Relationship} it came from.
*
* The value can be of type array, where {@link ArrayPropertyUtil} can be of
* help.
*
* @param value the value from a {@link Node} or {@link Relationship} to
* match against an expected value.
* @return {@code true} if the value matches, else {@code false}.
*/
boolean matches( Object value );
}