/**
 * Copyright 2005-2013 The Kuali Foundation
 *
 * Licensed under the Educational Community 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.opensource.org/licenses/ecl2.php
 *
 * 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.kuali.rice.krms.framework.engine.expression;

import java.util.Comparator;

/**
 *
 * For creating custom ComparisonOperator.
 *
 * @link ComparisonOperator
 *
 * @author Kuali Rice Team (rice.collab@kuali.org)
 */
public interface EngineComparatorExtension<A> extends Comparator<A> {

    /**
     *
     * @param lhs
     * @param rhs
     * @return int where 0 is equals - is less than and + is greater than
     */
    public int compare(A lhs, A rhs);

    /**
     * Return Object created from the value passed in.
     *
     * @param s
     * @return
     */
//    A coerce(String s);

    /**
     *
     * @param lhs
     * @param rhs
     * @return able to compare lhs and rhs
     */
    boolean canCompare(Object lhs, Object rhs);
}