/*		 
 * Copyright (C) 2002-2014 Sebastiano Vigna 
 *
 * 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 PACKAGE;

import java.util.Comparator;

/** A type-specific {@link Comparator}; provides methods to compare two primitive types both as objects
 * and as primitive types. 
 *
 * <P>Note that <code>fastutil</code> provides a corresponding abstract class that
 * can be used to implement this interface just by specifying the type-specific
 * comparator.
 *
 * @see Comparator
 */

public interface KEY_COMPARATOR KEY_GENERIC extends Comparator<KEY_GENERIC_CLASS> {

	/** Compares the given primitive types.
	 *
	 * @see java.util.Comparator
	 * @return A positive integer, zero, or a negative integer if the first
	 * argument is greater than, equal to, or smaller than, respectively, the
	 * second one.
	 */

	public int compare( KEY_TYPE k1, KEY_TYPE k2 );
}