/*  Copyright (c) 2010, Jan Stender, Bjoern Kolbeck, Mikael Hoegqvist,
                    Felix Hupfeld, Felix Langner, Zuse Institute Berlin
All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
are met:

 * Redistributions of source code must retain the above
      copyright notice, this list of conditions and the
      following disclaimer.
 * Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above
      copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following
      disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials
      provided with the distribution.
 * Neither the name of the Zuse Institute Berlin nor the
      names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote
      products derived from this software without specific prior
      written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS
"AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT
LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS
FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT,
INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING,
BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES;
LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER
CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN
ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE
POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.
 */
/*
 * AUTHORS: Jan Stender (ZIB)
 */

package de.mxro.thrd.babudb05.api.database;

import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.Map.Entry;

/**
 * A result set for prefix and range queries.
 * 
 * <p>
 * In addition to the methods inherited from the <code>java.util.Iterator</code>
 * interface, it defines an extra method to explicitly free any buffers bound to
 * the iterator. Applications that use prefix or range queries should invoke
 * <code>free()</code> once the result set is no longer needed, so as to keep
 * the memory footprint of BabuDB as low as possible.
 * </p>
 * 
 * @author stender
 * 
 */
public interface ResultSet<K, V> extends Iterator<Entry<K, V>> {
    
    /**
     * Frees any resources attached to the iterator.
     */
    public void free();
    
}