com.tinkerpop.blueprints

Interface Element

All Known Subinterfaces:

Edge, Vertex

All Known Implementing Classes:

EventEdge, EventElement, EventVertex, IdEdge, IdElement, IdVertex, PartitionEdge, PartitionElement, PartitionVertex, ReadOnlyEdge, ReadOnlyVertex, WrappedEdge, WrappedElement, WrappedVertex

public interface Element

An Element is the base class for both vertices and edges. An element has an identifier that must be unique to its inheriting classes (vertex or edges). An element can maintain a collection of key/value properties. Keys are always Strings and values can be any Object. Particular implementations can reduce the space of objects that can be used as values. Typically, objects are Java primitives (e.g. String, long, int, boolean, etc.)

Author:

Marko A. Rodriguez (http://markorodriguez.com)

Method Summary

Methods

Modifier and Type	Method and Description
Object	getId() An identifier that is unique to its inheriting class.
<T> T	getProperty(String key) Return the object value associated with the provided string key.
Set<String>	getPropertyKeys() Return all the keys associated with the element.
void	remove() Remove the element from the graph.
<T> T	removeProperty(String key) Un-assigns a key/value property from the element.
void	setProperty(String key, Object value) Assign a key/value property to the element.

Method Detail

getProperty

<T> T getProperty(String key)

Return the object value associated with the provided string key. If no value exists for that key, return null.

Parameters:

key - the key of the key/value property

Returns:

the object value related to the string key

getPropertyKeys

Set<String> getPropertyKeys()

Return all the keys associated with the element.

Returns:

the set of all string keys associated with the element

setProperty

void setProperty(String key,
               Object value)

Assign a key/value property to the element. If a value already exists for this key, then the previous key/value is overwritten.

Parameters:

key - the string key of the property

value - the object value o the property

removeProperty

<T> T removeProperty(String key)

Un-assigns a key/value property from the element. The object value of the removed property is returned.

Parameters:

key - the key of the property to remove from the element

Returns:

the object value associated with that key prior to removal

remove

void remove()

Remove the element from the graph.

getId

Object getId()

An identifier that is unique to its inheriting class. All vertices of a graph must have unique identifiers. All edges of a graph must have unique identifiers.

Returns:

the identifier of the element