api/src/main/java/jakarta/el/VariableMapper.java

/*
 * Copyright (c) 1997, 2019 Oracle and/or its affiliates and others.
 * All rights reserved.
 * Copyright 2004 The Apache Software Foundation
 *
 * 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 jakarta.el;

/**
 * The interface to a map between Jakarta Expression Language variables and the Jakarta Expression Language expressions
 * they are associated with.
 *
 * @since Jakarta Server Pages 2.1
 */
public abstract class VariableMapper {

    /**
     * @param variable The variable name
     * 
     * @return the ValueExpression assigned to the variable, null if there is no previous assignment to this variable.
     */
    public abstract ValueExpression resolveVariable(String variable);

    /**
     * Assign a ValueExpression to an Jakarta Expression Language variable, replacing any previously assignment to the same
     * variable. The assignment for the variable is removed if the expression is <code>null</code>.
     *
     * @param variable The variable name
     * @param expression The ValueExpression to be assigned to the variable.
     * 
     * @return The previous ValueExpression assigned to this variable, null if there is no previous assignment to this
     * variable.
     */
    public abstract ValueExpression setVariable(String variable, ValueExpression expression);
}