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      1 /*
      2  * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
      3  * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
      4  * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
      5  * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
      6  * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
      7  * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
      8  *
      9  *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
     10  *
     11  * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
     12  * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
     13  * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
     14  * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
     15  * limitations under the License.
     16  */
     17 // $Id: XPathVariableResolver.java 446598 2006-09-15 12:55:40Z jeremias $
     18 
     19 package javax.xml.xpath;
     20 
     21 import javax.xml.namespace.QName;
     22 
     23 /**
     24  * <p><code>XPathVariableResolver</code> provides access to the set of user defined XPath variables.</p>
     25  *
     26  * <p>The <code>XPathVariableResolver</code> and the XPath evaluator must adhere to a contract that
     27  * cannot be directly enforced by the API.  Although variables may be mutable,
     28  * that is, an application may wish to evaluate the same XPath expression more
     29  * than once with different variable values, in the course of evaluating any
     30  * single XPath expression, a variable's value <strong><em>must</em></strong> be immutable.</p>
     31  *
     32  * @author  <a href="mailto:Norman.Walsh (at) Sun.com">Norman Walsh</a>
     33  * @author  <a href="mailto:Jeff.Suttor (at) Sun.com">Jeff Suttor</a>
     34  * @version $Revision: 446598 $, $Date: 2006-09-15 05:55:40 -0700 (Fri, 15 Sep 2006) $
     35  * @since 1.5
     36  */
     37 public interface XPathVariableResolver {
     38   /**
     39    * <p>Find a variable in the set of available variables.</p>
     40    *
     41    * <p>If <code>variableName</code> is <code>null</code>, then a <code>NullPointerException</code> is thrown.</p>
     42    *
     43    * @param variableName The <code>QName</code> of the variable name.
     44    *
     45    * @return The variables value, or <code>null</code> if no variable named <code>variableName</code>
     46    *   exists.  The value returned must be of a type appropriate for the underlying object model.
     47    *
     48    * @throws NullPointerException If <code>variableName</code> is <code>null</code>.
     49    */
     50   public Object resolveVariable(QName variableName);
     51 }
     52