/* $RCSfile$
* $Author$
* $Date$
* $Revision$
*
* Copyright (C) 2006-2007 Egon Willighagen <egonw@users.sf.net>
*
* Contact: cdk-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
*
* This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
* modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License
* as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1
* 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 Lesser General Public License for more details.
*
* You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
* along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
* Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
*/
package org.openscience.cdk.interfaces;
/**
* Class representing a ring structure in a molecule.
* A ring is a linear sequence of
* N atoms interconnected to each other by covalent bonds,
* such that atom i (1 < i < N) is bonded to
* atom i-1 and atom i + 1 and atom 1 is bonded to atom N and atom 2.
*
* @cdk.module interfaces
* @cdk.githash
*
* @cdk.keyword ring
*/
public interface IRing extends IAtomContainer {
/**
* Returns the number of atoms/bonds in this ring.
*
* @return The number of atoms/bonds in this ring
*/
public int getRingSize();
/**
* Returns the next bond in order, relative to a given bond and atom.
* Example: Let the ring be composed of 0-1, 1-2, 2-3 and 3-0.
* A request getNextBond(1-2, 2) will return Bond 2-3.
*
* @param bond A bond for which an atom from a consecutive bond is sought
* @param atom A atom from the bond above to assign a search direction
* @return The next bond in the order given by the above assignment
*/
public IBond getNextBond(IBond bond, IAtom atom);
/**
* Returns the sum of all bond orders in the ring.
*
* @return the sum of all bond orders in the ring
*/
public int getBondOrderSum();
}