/*
* Copyright 2002-2009 the original author or authors.
*
* 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 org.springframework.core;
/**
* Interface that can be implemented by objects that should be
* orderable, for example in a Collection.
*
* <p>The actual order can be interpreted as prioritization, with
* the first object (with the lowest order value) having the highest
* priority.
*
* <p>Note that there is a 'priority' marker for this interface:
* {@link PriorityOrdered}. Order values expressed by PriorityOrdered
* objects always apply before order values of 'plain' Ordered values.
*
* @author Juergen Hoeller
* @since 07.04.2003
* @see OrderComparator
* @see org.springframework.core.annotation.Order
*/
public interface Ordered {
/**
* Useful constant for the highest precedence value.
* @see java.lang.Integer#MIN_VALUE
*/
int HIGHEST_PRECEDENCE = Integer.MIN_VALUE;
/**
* Useful constant for the lowest precedence value.
* @see java.lang.Integer#MAX_VALUE
*/
int LOWEST_PRECEDENCE = Integer.MAX_VALUE;
/**
* Return the order value of this object, with a
* higher value meaning greater in terms of sorting.
* <p>Normally starting with 0, with <code>Integer.MAX_VALUE</code>
* indicating the greatest value. Same order values will result
* in arbitrary positions for the affected objects.
* <p>Higher values can be interpreted as lower priority. As a
* consequence, the object with the lowest value has highest priority
* (somewhat analogous to Servlet "load-on-startup" values).
* @return the order value
*/
int getOrder();
}
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