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Comparing jsr166/src/main/java/util/Queue.java (file contents):
Revision 1.1 by tim, Wed May 14 21:30:45 2003 UTC vs.
Revision 1.23 by dl, Sun Nov 21 01:40:39 2004 UTC

# Line 1 | Line 1
1 + /*
2 + * Written by Doug Lea with assistance from members of JCP JSR-166
3 + * Expert Group and released to the public domain, as explained at
4 + * http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain
5 + */
6 +
7   package java.util;
8  
9   /**
10 < * Queues are Collections supporting additional basic insertion,
11 < * extraction, and inspection operations.
12 < *
13 < * <p> Queues typically, but do not necessarily order elements in a
14 < * FIFO (first-in-first-out) manner. Among the exceptions are priority
15 < * queues, that order elements in accord with supplied
16 < * Comparators. Every Queue implementation must specify its ordering
17 < * guarantees,
18 < *
19 < * <p> The <tt>offer</tt> method adds an element if possible,
20 < * otherwise returning <tt>false</tt>. This differs from the
21 < * Collections.add method, that throws an unchecked exception upon
22 < * failure. It is designed for use in collections in which failure to
23 < * add is a normal, rather than exceptional occurrence, for example,
24 < * in fixed-capacity queues.
25 < *
26 < * <p> The <tt>remove</tt> and <tt>poll</tt> methods delete and return
27 < * an element in accord with the implementation's ordering policies --
28 < * for example, in FIFO queues, it will return the oldest element.
29 < * The <tt>remove</tt> and <tt>poll</tt> differ only in their behavior
30 < * when the queue is empty: <tt>poll</tt> returns <tt>null</tt> while
31 < * <tt>remove</tt> throws an exception. These are designed for usage
32 < * contexts in which emptiness is considered to be normal versus
33 < * exceptional.
34 < *
35 < * <p> The <tt>element</tt> and <tt>peek</tt> methods return but do
36 < * not delete the element that would be obtained by a call to
37 < * <tt>remove</tt> and <tt>poll</tt> respectively.
38 < *
39 < * <p> The Queue interface does not define blocking queue methods
40 < * (i.e., those that wait for elements to appear and/or for space to
41 < * be available) that are common in concurrent programming. These are
42 < * defined in the extended java.util.concurrent.BlockingQueue
43 < * interface.
44 < *
45 < * <p> Queue implementations generally do not allow insertion of
46 < * <tt>null</tt>. Even in those that allow it, it is a very bad idea
47 < * to do so, since <tt>null</tt> is also used as a sentinel by
48 < * <tt>poll</tt> to indicate that no elements exist.
49 < **/
10 > * A collection designed for holding elements prior to processing.
11 > * Besides basic {@link java.util.Collection Collection} operations, queues provide
12 > * additional insertion, extraction, and inspection operations. The names
13 > * of the operations vary with their policies:
14 > *
15 > *<table BORDER CELLPADDING=3 CELLSPACING=1>
16 > *  <tr>
17 > *    <td><em>Operation</em></td>
18 > *    <td ALIGN=CENTER><em>Attempt</em></td>
19 > *    <td ALIGN=CENTER><em>Throw</em></td>
20 > *  </tr>
21 > *  <tr>
22 > *    <td><em>insert</em></td>
23 > *    <td>offer(x)</td>
24 > *    <td>add(x)</td>
25 > *  </tr>
26 > *  <tr>
27 > *    <td><em>extract</em></td>
28 > *    <td>poll()</td>
29 > *    <td>remove()</td>
30 > *  </tr>
31 > *  <tr>
32 > *    <td><em>inspect</em></td>
33 > *    <td>peek()</td>
34 > *    <td>element()</td>
35 > *  </tr>
36 > *</table>
37 > *
38 > * <p>Queues typically, but do not necessarily, order elements in a
39 > * FIFO (first-in-first-out) manner.  Among the exceptions are
40 > * priority queues, which order elements according to a supplied
41 > * comparator, or the elements' natural ordering, and LIFO queues (or
42 > * stacks) which order the elements LIFO (last-in-first-out).
43 > * Whatever the ordering used, the <em>head</em> of the queue is that
44 > * element which would be removed by a call to {@link #remove() } or
45 > * {@link #poll()}.  In a FIFO queue, all new elements are inserted at
46 > * the <em> tail</em> of the queue. Other kinds of queues may use
47 > * different placement rules.  Every <tt>Queue</tt> implementation
48 > * must specify its ordering properties.
49 > *
50 > * <p>The {@link #offer offer} method inserts an element if possible,
51 > * otherwise returning <tt>false</tt>.  This differs from the {@link
52 > * java.util.Collection#add Collection.add} method, which can fail to
53 > * add an element only by throwing an unchecked exception.  The
54 > * <tt>offer</tt> method is designed for use when failure is a normal,
55 > * rather than exceptional occurrence, for example, in fixed-capacity
56 > * (or &quot;bounded&quot;) queues.
57 > *
58 > * <p>The {@link #remove()} and {@link #poll()} methods remove and
59 > * return the head of the queue.
60 > * Exactly which element is removed from the queue is a
61 > * function of the queue's ordering policy, which differs from
62 > * implementation to implementation. The <tt>remove()</tt> and
63 > * <tt>poll()</tt> methods differ only in their behavior when the
64 > * queue is empty: the <tt>remove()</tt> method throws an exception,
65 > * while the <tt>poll()</tt> method returns <tt>null</tt>.
66 > *
67 > * <p>The {@link #element()} and {@link #peek()} methods return, but do
68 > * not remove, the head of the queue.
69 > *
70 > * <p>The <tt>Queue</tt> interface does not define the <i>blocking queue
71 > * methods</i>, which are common in concurrent programming.  These methods,
72 > * which wait for elements to appear or for space to become available, are
73 > * defined in the {@link java.util.concurrent.BlockingQueue} interface, which
74 > * extends this interface.
75 > *
76 > * <p><tt>Queue</tt> implementations generally do not allow insertion
77 > * of <tt>null</tt> elements, although some implementations, such as
78 > * {@link LinkedList}, do not prohibit insertion of <tt>null</tt>.
79 > * Even in the implementations that permit it, <tt>null</tt> should
80 > * not be inserted into a <tt>Queue</tt>, as <tt>null</tt> is also
81 > * used as a special return value by the <tt>poll</tt> method to
82 > * indicate that the queue contains no elements.
83 > *
84 > * <p><tt>Queue</tt> implementations generally do not define
85 > * element-based versions of methods <tt>equals</tt> and
86 > * <tt>hashCode</tt> but instead inherit the identity based versions
87 > * from class <tt>Object</tt>, because element-based equality is not
88 > * always well-defined for queues with the same elements but different
89 > * ordering properties.
90 > *
91 > *
92 > * <p>This interface is a member of the
93 > * <a href="{@docRoot}/../guide/collections/index.html">
94 > * Java Collections Framework</a>.
95 > *
96 > * @see java.util.Collection
97 > * @see LinkedList
98 > * @see PriorityQueue
99 > * @see java.util.concurrent.LinkedBlockingQueue
100 > * @see java.util.concurrent.BlockingQueue
101 > * @see java.util.concurrent.ArrayBlockingQueue
102 > * @see java.util.concurrent.LinkedBlockingQueue
103 > * @see java.util.concurrent.PriorityBlockingQueue
104 > * @since 1.5
105 > * @author Doug Lea
106 > * @param <E> the type of elements held in this collection
107 > */
108   public interface Queue<E> extends Collection<E> {
109  
110      /**
111 <     * Add the given object to this queue if possible.
112 <     * @param x the object to add
113 <     * @return true if successful
114 <     **/
115 <    public boolean offer(E x);
111 >     * Inserts the specified element into this queue, if possible.  When
112 >     * using queues that may impose insertion restrictions (for
113 >     * example capacity bounds), method <tt>offer</tt> is generally
114 >     * preferable to method {@link Collection#add}, which can fail to
115 >     * insert an element only by throwing an exception.
116 >     *
117 >     * @param o the element to insert.
118 >     * @return <tt>true</tt> if it was possible to add the element to
119 >     * this queue, else <tt>false</tt>
120 >     */
121 >    boolean offer(E o);
122  
123      /**
124 <     * Delete and return an object from the queue if one is available.
125 <     * @return the object, or null if the queue is empty.
126 <     **/
127 <    public E poll();
124 >     * Retrieves and removes the head of this queue, or <tt>null</tt>
125 >     * if this queue is empty.
126 >     *
127 >     * @return the head of this queue, or <tt>null</tt> if this
128 >     *         queue is empty.
129 >     */
130 >    E poll();
131  
132      /**
133 <     * Delete and return the element produced by poll, if the queue is
134 <     * not empty.
135 <     * @return an element
136 <     * @throws NoSuchElementException if empty
137 <     **/
138 <    public E remove() throws NoSuchElementException;
133 >     * Retrieves and removes the head of this queue.  This method
134 >     * differs from the <tt>poll</tt> method in that it throws an
135 >     * exception if this queue is empty.
136 >     *
137 >     * @return the head of this queue.
138 >     * @throws NoSuchElementException if this queue is empty.
139 >     */
140 >    E remove();
141  
142      /**
143 <     * Return but do not delete the element that will be returned by
144 <     * the next call to poll.
145 <     * @return an element, or null if empty
146 <     **/
147 <    public E peek();
143 >     * Retrieves, but does not remove, the head of this queue,
144 >     * returning <tt>null</tt> if this queue is empty.
145 >     *
146 >     * @return the head of this queue, or <tt>null</tt> if this queue
147 >     * is empty.
148 >     */
149 >    E peek();
150  
151      /**
152 <     * Return but do not delete the element that will be returned by
153 <     * the next call to poll, if the queue is not empty.
154 <     * @return an element
155 <     * @throws NoSuchElementException if empty
156 <     **/
157 <    public E element() throws NoSuchElementException;
152 >     * Retrieves, but does not remove, the head of this queue.  This method
153 >     * differs from the <tt>peek</tt> method only in that it throws an
154 >     * exception if this queue is empty.
155 >     *
156 >     * @return the head of this queue.
157 >     * @throws NoSuchElementException if this queue is empty.
158 >     */
159 >    E element();
160   }

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