/**
* DataCleaner (community edition)
* 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.datacleaner.reference;
import java.io.Serializable;
import org.datacleaner.api.Close;
import org.datacleaner.api.Initialize;
import org.datacleaner.configuration.DataCleanerConfiguration;
/**
* A dictionary represents a set of values grouped together with a label.
*
* Examples of meaningful dictionaries:
* <ul>
* <li>Lastnames</li>
* <li>Female given names</li>
* <li>Product codes</li>
* </ul>
*
* Often times a dictionary will implement a caching mechanism to prevent having
* to hold all values of the dictionary in memory.
*
* @see Initialize
* @see Close
*
*
*/
public interface Dictionary extends ReferenceData, Serializable {
/**
* Opens a connection to the {@link Dictionary}. Keep the connection open
* while using the dictionary in a session, job or so. Close it when you
* don't expect more interaction.
*
* @param configuration
* @return
*/
DictionaryConnection openConnection(DataCleanerConfiguration configuration);
/**
* Determines if the {@link Dictionary} is defined as "case sensitive"
* meaning that the dictionary terms can be matched to regardless of text
* casing.
*
* @return
*/
default boolean isCaseSensitive() {
return true;
}
}