DictInterface.java

/** An interface for a dictionary of words. The dictionary allows 
 * searching for complete words as well as word prefixes.
 * Adapted from Dr. John Ramirez's CS 1501 Assignment 1
 */
public interface DictInterface
{
	/** Add a new String to the DictInterface
	 * @param s the string to be added
	 * @return true if the string was added successfully; false otherwise
	 */
	public boolean add(String s);
	
	

	/** The method below could be defined with various parameters.
	 * 	However, in our program, we will only use the version with
	 * the StringBuilder argument shown below.  This is so that we
	 * don't have the overhead of converting back and forth between
	 * StringBuilder and String each time we add a new character
	
	 * @param s the string to be searched for
	 * @return 0 if s is not a word or prefix within the DictInterface
	 * 	                  1 if s is a prefix within the DictInterface but not a 
	 *                       valid word
	 *                    2 if s is a word within the DictInterface but not a
	 *                        prefix to other words
	 *                    3 if s is both a word within the DictInterface and a
	 *                        prefix to other words
	 */   
	public int searchPrefix(StringBuilder s);

	/** Same logic as method above.  However, now we can search a substring
	 * from start (inclusive) to end (inclusive) within the StringBuilder.
	 * Depending on how you implement your main search algorithm, you may
	 * find this version to be more convenient or appropriate than the first
	 * one above.
	 * @param s
	 * @param start
	 * @param end
	 * @return
	 */
	public int searchPrefix(StringBuilder s, int start, int end);
}