/**
* Copyright (c) 2002-2013 "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 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 General Public License for more details.
*
* You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
* along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
*/
package org.neo4j.graphalgo;
import org.neo4j.graphdb.Node;
import org.neo4j.graphdb.Path;
/**
* Interface of algorithms that finds paths in between two nodes.
*
* @author Tobias Ivarsson
*
* @param <P> the path type that the algorithm produces
*/
public interface PathFinder<P extends Path>
{
/**
* Tries to find a single path between {@code start} and {@code end}
* nodes. If a path is found a {@link Path} is returned with that path
* information, else {@code null} is returned. If more than one path is
* found, the implementation can decide itself upon which of those to return.
*
* @param start the start {@link Node} which defines the start of the path.
* @param end the end {@link Node} which defines the end of the path.
* @return a single {@link Path} between {@code start} and {@code end},
* or {@code null} if no path was found.
*/
P findSinglePath( Node start, Node end );
/**
* Tries to find all paths between {@code start} and {@code end} nodes.
* A collection of {@link Path}s is returned with all the found paths.
* If no paths are found an empty collection is returned.
*
* @param start the start {@link Node} which defines the start of the path.
* @param end the end {@link Node} which defines the end of the path.
* @return all {@link Path}s between {@code start} and {@code end}.
*/
Iterable<P> findAllPaths( Node start, Node end );
}