/*
 * Copyright 2002-2012 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.expression;

/**
 * Instances of a type comparator should be able to compare pairs of objects for equality, the specification of the
 * return value is the same as for {@link Comparable}.
 *
 * @author Andy Clement
 * @since 3.0
 */
public interface TypeComparator {

	/**
	 * Compare two objects.
	 * @param firstObject the first object
	 * @param secondObject the second object
	 * @return 0 if they are equal, <0 if the first is smaller than the second, or >0 if the first is larger than the
	 * second
	 * @throws EvaluationException if a problem occurs during comparison (or they are not comparable)
	 */
	int compare(Object firstObject, Object secondObject) throws EvaluationException;

	/**
	 * Return true if the comparator can compare these two objects
	 * @param firstObject the first object
	 * @param secondObject the second object
	 * @return true if the comparator can compare these objects
	 */
	boolean canCompare(Object firstObject, Object secondObject);

}
