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* DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
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* 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.
*
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package java.lang;
/**
* A <tt>CharSequence</tt> is a readable sequence of <code>char</code> values. This
* interface provides uniform, read-only access to many different kinds of
* <code>char</code> sequences.
* A <code>char</code> value represents a character in the <i>Basic
* Multilingual Plane (BMP)</i> or a surrogate. Refer to <a
* href="Character.html#unicode">Unicode Character Representation</a> for details.
*
* <p> This interface does not refine the general contracts of the {@link
* java.lang.Object#equals(java.lang.Object) equals} and {@link
* java.lang.Object#hashCode() hashCode} methods. The result of comparing two
* objects that implement <tt>CharSequence</tt> is therefore, in general,
* undefined. Each object may be implemented by a different class, and there
* is no guarantee that each class will be capable of testing its instances
* for equality with those of the other. It is therefore inappropriate to use
* arbitrary <tt>CharSequence</tt> instances as elements in a set or as keys in
* a map. </p>
*
* @author Mike McCloskey
* @since 1.4
* @spec JSR-51
*/
public interface CharSequence {
/**
* Returns the length of this character sequence. The length is the number
* of 16-bit <code>char</code>s in the sequence.</p>
*
* @return the number of <code>char</code>s in this sequence
*/
int length();
/**
* Returns the <code>char</code> value at the specified index. An index ranges from zero
* to <tt>length() - 1</tt>. The first <code>char</code> value of the sequence is at
* index zero, the next at index one, and so on, as for array
* indexing. </p>
*
* <p>If the <code>char</code> value specified by the index is a
* <a href="Character.html#unicode">surrogate</a>, the surrogate
* value is returned.
*
* @param index the index of the <code>char</code> value to be returned
*
* @return the specified <code>char</code> value
*
* @throws IndexOutOfBoundsException
* if the <tt>index</tt> argument is negative or not less than
* <tt>length()</tt>
*/
char charAt(int index);
/**
* Returns a new <code>CharSequence</code> that is a subsequence of this sequence.
* The subsequence starts with the <code>char</code> value at the specified index and
* ends with the <code>char</code> value at index <tt>end - 1</tt>. The length
* (in <code>char</code>s) of the
* returned sequence is <tt>end - start</tt>, so if <tt>start == end</tt>
* then an empty sequence is returned. </p>
*
* @param start the start index, inclusive
* @param end the end index, exclusive
*
* @return the specified subsequence
*
* @throws IndexOutOfBoundsException
* if <tt>start</tt> or <tt>end</tt> are negative,
* if <tt>end</tt> is greater than <tt>length()</tt>,
* or if <tt>start</tt> is greater than <tt>end</tt>
*/
CharSequence subSequence(int start, int end);
/**
* Returns a string containing the characters in this sequence in the same
* order as this sequence. The length of the string will be the length of
* this sequence. </p>
*
* @return a string consisting of exactly this sequence of characters
*/
public String toString();
}