Ranking.java

/*
 Copyright 2008-2013 Gephi
 Authors : Mathieu Bastian <mathieu.bastian@gephi.org>
 Website : http://www.gephi.org

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 */
package org.gephi.appearance.api;

import org.gephi.graph.api.Element;
import org.gephi.graph.api.Graph;

/**
 * Ranking configuration for numerical attributes.
 * <p>
 * This interface has underlying access to the elements value so it can return
 * the minimum and maximum values.
 */
public interface Ranking {

    /**
     * Returns the minimum value in this ranking.
     *
     * @return minimum value
     */
    public Number getMinValue();

    /**
     * Returns the maximum value in this ranking.
     *
     * @return maximum value
     */
    public Number getMaxValue();

    /**
     * Returns the element's value for this ranking.
     *
     * @param element element to get the value for
     * @param graph graph this element belongs to
     * @return the value for this ranking
     */
    public Number getValue(Element element, Graph graph);

    /**
     * Normalizes the given value with the interpolator.
     * <p>
     * The value is first put between zero and one by doing <code>(value - min) / (max
     * - min)</code> and then passed to the given interpolator.
     *
     * @param value value to normalize
     * @param interpolator interpolator
     * @return normalized value
     */
    public float normalize(Number value, Interpolator interpolator);
}