package de.lmu.ifi.dbs.elki.result;

/*
 This file is part of ELKI:
 Environment for Developing KDD-Applications Supported by Index-Structures

 Copyright (C) 2012
 Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
 Lehr- und Forschungseinheit für Datenbanksysteme
 ELKI Development Team

 This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
 it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by
 the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
 (at your option) any later version.

 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 GNU Affero General Public License for more details.

 You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License
 along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 */


/**
 * Result with an internal hierarchy.
 * 
 * Note: while this often seems a bit clumsy to use, the benefit of having this
 * delegate is to keep the APIs simpler, and thus make ELKI development easier.
 * 
 * @author Erich Schubert
 * 
 * @apiviz.composedOf ResultHierarchy
 */
public interface HierarchicalResult extends Result {
  /**
   * Get the objects current hierarchy - may be {@code null}!
   * 
   * @return current hierarchy. May be {@code null}!
   */
  public ResultHierarchy getHierarchy();

  /**
   * Set (exchange) the hierarchy implementation (e.g. after merging!)
   * 
   * @param hierarchy New hierarchy
   */
  public void setHierarchy(ResultHierarchy hierarchy);
}