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* Copyright (c) 2003, 2005, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
* DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
*
* This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
* under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as
* published by the Free Software Foundation. Oracle designates this
* particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided
* by Oracle in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code.
*
* This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
* ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
* FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
* version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that
* accompanied this code).
*
* You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version
* 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
* Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
*
* Please contact Oracle, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood Shores, CA 94065 USA
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*/
package javax.xml.xpath;
import javax.xml.namespace.QName;
/**
* <p><code>XPathVariableResolver</code> provides access to the set of user defined XPath variables.</p>
*
* <p>The <code>XPathVariableResolver</code> and the XPath evaluator must adhere to a contract that
* cannot be directly enforced by the API. Although variables may be mutable,
* that is, an application may wish to evaluate the same XPath expression more
* than once with different variable values, in the course of evaluating any
* single XPath expression, a variable's value <strong><em>must</em></strong>
* not change.</p>
*
* @author <a href="mailto:Norman.Walsh@Sun.com">Norman Walsh</a>
* @author <a href="mailto:Jeff.Suttor@Sun.com">Jeff Suttor</a>
* @since 1.5
*/
public interface XPathVariableResolver {
/**
* <p>Find a variable in the set of available variables.</p>
*
* <p>If <code>variableName</code> is <code>null</code>, then a <code>NullPointerException</code> is thrown.</p>
*
* @param variableName The <code>QName</code> of the variable name.
*
* @return The variables value, or <code>null</code> if no variable named <code>variableName</code>
* exists. The value returned must be of a type appropriate for the underlying object model.
*
* @throws NullPointerException If <code>variableName</code> is <code>null</code>.
*/
public Object resolveVariable(QName variableName);
}