/**
 * AnalyzerBeans
 * Copyright (C) 2014 Neopost - Customer Information Management
 *
 * This copyrighted material is made available to anyone wishing to use, modify,
 * copy, or redistribute it subject to the terms and conditions of the GNU
 * Lesser General Public License, as published by the Free Software Foundation.
 *
 * 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 distribution; if not, write to:
 * Free Software Foundation, Inc.
 * 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor
 * Boston, MA  02110-1301  USA
 */
package org.eobjects.analyzer.metadata;

import java.util.List;

import org.apache.metamodel.schema.Column;

/**
 * Defines methods for objects that contain column metadata.
 * 
 * @see TableMetadata
 * @see ColumnGroupMetadata
 */
public interface HasColumnMetadata {

    /**
     * Gets {@link ColumnMetadata} for a particular {@link Column}.
     * 
     * @param columnName
     * @return a {@link ColumnMetadata} object, or null if no metadata about the
     *         column is available.
     */
    public ColumnMetadata getColumnMetadataByName(String columnName);

    /**
     * Gets {@link ColumnMetadata} for a particular {@link Column}.
     * 
     * @param columnName
     * @return a {@link ColumnMetadata} object, or null if no metadata about the
     *         column is available.
     */
    public ColumnMetadata getColumnMetadata(Column column);

    /**
     * Gets all available {@link ColumnMetadata} objects.
     * 
     * @return
     */
    public List<ColumnMetadata> getColumnMetadata();
}