api/src/main/java/javax/el/Expression.java

/*
 * Copyright (c) 1997-2018 Oracle and/or its affiliates. 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 javax.el;

import java.io.Serializable;

/**
 * Base class for the expression subclasses {@link ValueExpression} and {@link MethodExpression}, implementing
 * characteristics common to both.
 *
 * <p>
 * All expressions must implement the <code>equals()</code> and <code>hashCode()</code> methods so that two expressions
 * can be compared for equality. They are redefined abstract in this class to force their implementation in subclasses.
 * </p>
 *
 * <p>
 * All expressions must also be <code>Serializable</code> so that they can be saved and restored.
 * </p>
 *
 * <p>
 * <code>Expression</code>s are also designed to be immutable so that only one instance needs to be created for any
 * given expression String / {@link FunctionMapper}. This allows a container to pre-create expressions and not have to
 * re-parse them each time they are evaluated.
 * </p>
 *
 * @since JSP 2.1
 */
public abstract class Expression implements Serializable {
    // Debugging

    /**
     * Returns the original String used to create this <code>Expression</code>, unmodified.
     *
     * <p>
     * This is used for debugging purposes but also for the purposes of comparison (e.g. to ensure the expression in a
     * configuration file has not changed).
     * </p>
     *
     * <p>
     * This method does not provide sufficient information to re-create an expression. Two different expressions can have
     * exactly the same expression string but different function mappings. Serialization should be used to save and restore
     * the state of an <code>Expression</code>.
     * </p>
     *
     * @return The original expression String.
     */
    public abstract String getExpressionString();

    // Comparison

    /**
     * Determines whether the specified object is equal to this <code>Expression</code>.
     *
     * <p>
     * The result is <code>true</code> if and only if the argument is not <code>null</code>, is an <code>Expression</code>
     * object that is the of the same type (<code>ValueExpression</code> or <code>MethodExpression</code>), and has an
     * identical parsed representation.
     * </p>
     *
     * <p>
     * Note that two expressions can be equal if their expression Strings are different. For example,
     * <code>${fn1:foo()}</code> and <code>${fn2:foo()}</code> are equal if their corresponding <code>FunctionMapper</code>s
     * mapped <code>fn1:foo</code> and <code>fn2:foo</code> to the same method.
     * </p>
     *
     * @param obj the <code>Object</code> to test for equality.
     * @return <code>true</code> if <code>obj</code> equals this <code>Expression</code>; <code>false</code> otherwise.
     * @see java.util.Hashtable
     * @see java.lang.Object#equals(java.lang.Object)
     */
    @Override
    public abstract boolean equals(Object obj);

    /**
     * Returns the hash code for this <code>Expression</code>.
     *
     * <p>
     * See the note in the {@link #equals} method on how two expressions can be equal if their expression Strings are
     * different. Recall that if two objects are equal according to the <code>equals(Object)</code> method, then calling the
     * <code>hashCode</code> method on each of the two objects must produce the same integer result. Implementations must
     * take special note and implement <code>hashCode</code> correctly.
     * </p>
     *
     * @return The hash code for this <code>Expression</code>.
     * @see #equals
     * @see java.util.Hashtable
     * @see java.lang.Object#hashCode()
     */
    @Override
    public abstract int hashCode();

    /**
     * Returns whether this expression was created from only literal text.
     *
     * <p>
     * This method must return <code>true</code> if and only if the expression string this expression was created from
     * contained no unescaped EL delimeters (<code>${...}</code> or <code>#{...}</code>).
     * </p>
     *
     * @return <code>true</code> if this expression was created from only literal text; <code>false</code> otherwise.
     */
    public abstract boolean isLiteralText();
}