/*
 * Copyright 2013 Cameron Beccario
 *
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */

package net.nullschool.collect;

import java.util.Map;


/**
 * 2013-02-12<p/>
 *
 * A {@link Map} that provides iterations over its key-value associations via a {@link MapIterator}. Iterations
 * using a {@link MapIterator} can avoid costly iterations over the more conventional {@link #entrySet} when the
 * map implementation does not natively use instances of {@link Entry} for representing key-value associations.
 *
 * @author Cameron Beccario
 */
public interface IterableMap<K, V> extends Map<K, V> {

    /**
     * Returns an iterator over this map's key-value associations.
     *
     * @return a new iteration of this map's entries.
     */
    MapIterator<K, V> iterator();
}