/*
 * This file is part of "SnipSnap Radeox Rendering Engine".
 *
 * Copyright (c) 2002 Stephan J. Schmidt, Matthias L. Jugel
 * All Rights Reserved.
 *
 * Please visit http://radeox.org/ for updates and contact.
 *
 * --LICENSE NOTICE--
 * 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.
 * --LICENSE NOTICE--
 */

package org.radeox.regex;

/*
 * The result when a Matcher object finds matches in some input @author stephan
 * @team sonicteam
 * 
 * @version $Id: MatchResult.java 7756 2006-04-13 12:25:49Z ian@caret.cam.ac.uk $
 */

public abstract class MatchResult
{

	/**
	 * Create a new MatchResult depending on the used implementation
	 * 
	 * @param matcher
	 *        Matcher object of the implementation
	 * @return MatchResult for the Matcher
	 */
	public static MatchResult create(Matcher matcher)
	{
		return new JdkMatchResult(matcher);
	}

	/**
	 * Returns the number of groups (...) found
	 * 
	 * @return Number of found groups
	 */
	public abstract int groups();

	/**
	 * Return the content of group with the index i
	 * 
	 * @param i
	 *        index for the group
	 * @return Content of the group with the index i
	 */
	public abstract String group(int i);

	/**
	 * The offset of the beginning of the match for the group with the index i
	 * 
	 * @param i
	 *        index for the group
	 * @return Offset of the group
	 */
	public abstract int beginOffset(int i);

	/**
	 * The offset of the end of the match for the group with the index i
	 * 
	 * @param i
	 *        index for the group
	 * @return Offset of the group
	 */
	public abstract int endOffset(int i);
}