/* Copyright (c) 2000-2006 hamcrest.org
*/
package ext.test4j.hamcrest;
/**
* A matcher over acceptable values. A matcher is able to describe itself to
* give feedback when it fails.
* <p/>
* Matcher implementations should <b>NOT directly implement this interface</b>.
* Instead, <b>extend</b> the {@link BaseMatcher} abstract class, which will
* ensure that the Matcher API can grow to support new features and remain
* compatible with all Matcher implementations.
* <p/>
* For easy access to common Matcher implementations, use the static factory
* methods in {@link CoreMatchers}.
*
* @see CoreMatchers
* @see BaseMatcher
*/
public interface Matcher<T> extends SelfDescribing {
/**
* Evaluates the matcher for argument <var>item</var>.
* <p/>
* This method matches against Object, instead of the generic type T. This
* is because the caller of the Matcher does not know at runtime what the
* type is (because of type erasure with Java generics). It is down to the
* implementations to check the correct type.
*
* @param item
* the object against which the matcher is evaluated.
* @return <code>true</code> if <var>item</var> matches, otherwise
* <code>false</code>.
*
* @see BaseMatcher
*/
boolean matches(Object actual);
/**
* Generate a description of why the matcher has not accepted the item. The
* description will be part of a larger description of why a matching
* failed, so it should be concise. This method assumes that
* <code>matches(item)</code> is false, but will not check this.
*
* @param item
* The item that the Matcher has rejected.
* @param mismatchDescription
* The description to be built or appended to.
*/
void describeMismatch(Object item, Description mismatchDescription);
}