/*

  *   This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify

  *   it under the terms of the GNU 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 General Public License for more details.

  *

  *   You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License

  *   along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.

  */

 /*

  *    StartSetHandler.java

  *    Copyright (C) 1999-2012 University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

  *

  */

 package weka.attributeSelection;

 /** 

  * Interface for search methods capable of doing something sensible

  * given a starting set of attributes.

  *

  * @author Mark Hall (mhall@cs.waikato.ac.nz)

  * @version $Revision: 8034 $

  */

 public interface StartSetHandler {

   /**

    * Sets a starting set of attributes for the search. It is the

    * search method's responsibility to report this start set (if any)

    * in its toString() method.

    * @param startSet a string containing a list of attributes (and or ranges),

    * eg. 1,2,6,10-15.

    * @exception Exception if start set can't be set.

    */

   void setStartSet (String startSet) throws Exception;

   /**

    * Returns a list of attributes (and or attribute ranges) as a String

    * @return a list of attributes (and or attribute ranges)

    */

   String getStartSet ();

 }