Ordered (HTML Parser 1.6)

All Known Implementing Classes:

CharacterReference, Cursor
```
public interface Ordered
```
Describes an object that knows about ordering. Implementors must have a comparison function, which imposes a partial ordering on some collection of objects. Ordered objects can be passed to a sort method (such as org.htmlparser.util.sort.Sort) to allow precise control over the sort order.
An set of elements S is partially ordered if and only if e1.compare(e2)==0 implies that e1.equals(e2) for every e1 and e2 in S.
This all goes away in JDK 1.2.
For use with java.lang.Comparable from JDK 1.2:
```
 public int compare (Object o1, Object o2)
 {
     return (((Ordered)o1).compare (o2));
 }
 
```
See Also:

Sort

- Method Summary
  
  All Methods Instance Methods Abstract Methods
  Modifier and Type Method Description
  
  int compare(java.lang.Object that)
  Compares this object with another for order.

- Method Detail
  - compare
```
int compare(java.lang.Object that)
```
    Compares this object with another for order. Returns a negative integer, zero, or a positive integer as this object is less than, equal to, or greater than the second.
    The implementor must ensure that sgn(x.compare(y)) == -sgn(y.compare(x)) for all x and y. (This implies that x.compare(y) must throw an exception if and only if y.compare(x) throws an exception.)
    The implementor must also ensure that the relation is transitive: ((x.compare(y)>0) && (y.compare(z)>0)) implies x.compare(z)>0.
    Finally, the implementer must ensure that x.compare(y)==0 implies that sgn(x.compare(z))==sgn(y.compare(z)) for all z.
    
    Parameters:
    
    that - The object to compare this object against.
    
    Returns:
    
    A negative integer, zero, or a positive integer as this object is less than, equal to, or greater than the second.
    
    Throws:
    
    java.lang.ClassCastException - The arguments type prevents it from being compared by this Ordered.