Package spark.data

The Spark data facility provides a general mechanism for accessing objects and their components.

See:
Description

Interface Summary

SA	This is the interface for Spark arrays of objects.
SO	This defines the object interface for all objects in the Spark data model.
SParented	This is the interface for all objects that have a parent.

Class Summary

SArray	This is a concrete implementation of SA that implements arrays with arbitrary content and of dynamic length.
SObj	This is a concrete implementation of SO.
SOReflect	This is a concrete implementation of SO that has special properties.
SV	This is a general container for Spark data values.

Enum Summary

SVal	This enumerates the types of values that can be stored in an SV

Package spark.data Description

The Spark data facility provides a general mechanism for accessing objects and their components. There are three standard interfaces (SO-object, SA-array, SV-value) that define access to these objects. Theses are modeled after the data structures of JavaScript with the exception that there is explicit provision for objects with classes.

This general data model is used throughout the Spark system to represent virtually anything. The spark.data.io package provides general mechanisms for reading and writing SPARK data in a variety of formats.

It is also possible to wrap the SPARK data model around any Java objects using Java's reflection mechanism. This allows ordinary Java objects to use the facilities described here.

The most important classes are as follows:

• SV A general container that can store any of the types of data that Spark can handle. This class is used widely where the type of data is not known at compile time.
• SO This is an interface the defines how Spark objects are accessed. A Spark object has a class and any number of attribute-value pairs. This interface defines how these are accessed. This interface is used widely where the particular implementation used for objects is not important.
• SObj This is a general implementation of SO. It will store a dynamic number of attribute-value pairs of any type.
• SOReflect This is also an implementation of SO. However, this is intended to be subclassed. Any public fields or get/set method pairs will be treated as SO attributes. It will also store attribute values that do not match any of the subclass's attributes. This is the primary mechanism for creating classes that are compatible with SPARK's data facilities.
• SA this is an interface the defines how Spark arrays are accessed. A Spark array is of arbitrary length with indices beginning at zero.
• SArray This is a concrete implementation of SA. This is the primary array mechanism in SPARK.