simplenlg.framework

Enum DocumentCategory

java.lang.Object

java.lang.Enum<DocumentCategory>

simplenlg.framework.DocumentCategory

All Implemented Interfaces:

Serializable, Comparable<DocumentCategory>, ElementCategory

public enum DocumentCategory
extends Enum<DocumentCategory>
implements ElementCategory

This enumerated type defines the different types of components found in the structure of text. This deals exclusively with the structural format of the text and not of the syntax of the language. Therefore, this enumeration deals with documents, sections, paragraphs, sentences and lists.

The enumeration implements the ElementCategory interface, thus making it compatible the SimpleNLG framework.

Version:

4.0

Author:

D. Westwater, University of Aberdeen.

Enum Constant Summary

Enum Constants

Enum Constant and Description
DOCUMENT Definition for a document.
ENUMERATED_LIST Definition for creating a list of enumerated items.
LIST Definition for creating a list of items.
LIST_ITEM Definition for an item in a list.
PARAGRAPH Definition for a paragraph.
SECTION Definition for a section within a document.
SENTENCE Definition for a sentence.

Method Summary

Modifier and Type	Method and Description
boolean	equalTo(Object checkObject) Checks to see if the given object is equal to this document category.
boolean	hasSubPart(ElementCategory elementCategory) This method determines if the supplied elementCategory forms an immediate sub-part of this category.
static DocumentCategory	valueOf(String name) Returns the enum constant of this type with the specified name.
static DocumentCategory[]	values() Returns an array containing the constants of this enum type, in the order they are declared.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Enum

clone, compareTo, equals, finalize, getDeclaringClass, hashCode, name, ordinal, toString, valueOf

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

getClass, notify, notifyAll, wait, wait, wait

Enum Constant Detail

DOCUMENT

public static final DocumentCategory DOCUMENT

Definition for a document.

SECTION

public static final DocumentCategory SECTION

Definition for a section within a document.

PARAGRAPH

public static final DocumentCategory PARAGRAPH

Definition for a paragraph.

SENTENCE

public static final DocumentCategory SENTENCE

Definition for a sentence.

LIST

public static final DocumentCategory LIST

Definition for creating a list of items.

ENUMERATED_LIST

public static final DocumentCategory ENUMERATED_LIST

Definition for creating a list of enumerated items.

LIST_ITEM

public static final DocumentCategory LIST_ITEM

Definition for an item in a list.

Method Detail

values

public static DocumentCategory[] values()

Returns an array containing the constants of this enum type, in the order they are declared. This method may be used to iterate over the constants as follows:

for (DocumentCategory c : DocumentCategory.values())
    System.out.println(c);

Returns:

an array containing the constants of this enum type, in the order they are declared

valueOf

public static DocumentCategory valueOf(String name)

Returns the enum constant of this type with the specified name. The string must match exactly an identifier used to declare an enum constant in this type. (Extraneous whitespace characters are not permitted.)

Parameters:

name - the name of the enum constant to be returned.

Returns:

the enum constant with the specified name

Throws:

IllegalArgumentException - if this enum type has no constant with the specified name

NullPointerException - if the argument is null

equalTo

public boolean equalTo(Object checkObject)

Checks to see if the given object is equal to this document category. This is done by checking the enumeration if the object is of the type DocumentCategory or by converting the object and the this category to strings and comparing the strings.

For example, DocumentCategory.LIST will match another DocumentCategory.LIST but will also match the string "list" as well.

Specified by:

equalTo in interface ElementCategory

Parameters:

checkObject - the object to be checked against.

Returns:

true if the object matches, false otherwise.

hasSubPart

public boolean hasSubPart(ElementCategory elementCategory)

This method determines if the supplied elementCategory forms an immediate sub-part of this category. The allowed sub-parts for each this type are outlined below:

• DOCUMENT: can contain SECTIONs, PARAGRAPHs, SENTENCEs, LISTs and ENUMERATED_LISTs. It cannot contain other DOCUMENTs or LIST_ITEMs.
• SECTION: can contain SECTIONs (referred to as subsections), PARAGRAPHs, SENTENCEs, LISTs and ENUMERATED_LISTs. It cannot contain DOCUMENTs or LIST_ITEMs.
• PARAGRAPH: can contain SENTENCEs, LISTs and ENUMERATED_LISTs. It cannot contain DOCUMENTs, SECTIONs, other PARAGRAPHs or LIST_ITEMs.
• SENTENCE: can only contain other forms of NLGElements. It cannot contain DOCUMENTs, SECTIONs, PARAGRAPHs, other SENTENCEs, LISTs, ENUMERATED_LISTs or LIST_ITEMs.
• LIST: can only contain LIST_ITEMs. It cannot contain DOCUMENTs, SECTIONs, PARAGRAPHs, SENTENCEs, other LISTs or ENUMERATED_LISTs.
• ENUMERATED_LIST: can only contain LIST_ITEMs. It cannot contain DOCUMENTs, SECTIONs, PARAGRAPHs, SENTENCEs, LISTs or other ENUMERATED_LISTs.
• LIST_ITEMs: can contain PARAGRAPHs, SENTENCEs, LISTs, ENUMERATED_LISTs or other forms of NLGElements. It cannot contain DOCUMENTs, SECTIONs, or LIST_ITEMs.

For structuring text, this effectively becomes the test for relevant child types affecting the immediate children. For instance, it is possible for a DOCUMENT to contain LIST_ITEMs but only if the LIST_ITEMs are children of LISTs.

A more precise definition of SENTENCE would be that it only contains PHRASEs. However, this DocumentCategory does not consider these options as this crosses the boundary between orthographic structure and syntactic structure.

In pseudo-BNF this can be written as:

    DOCUMENT             ::= DOCUMENT_PART*
    DOCUMENT_PART  ::= SECTION | PARAGRAPH
    SECTION              ::= DOCUMENT_PART*
    PARAGRAPH    ::= PARAPGRAPH_PART*
    PARAGRAPH_PART ::= SENTENCE | LIST | ENUMERATED_LIST
    SENTENCE             ::= <NLGElement>*
    LIST                         ::= LIST_ITEM*
    ENUMERATED_LIST::= LIST_ITEM*
    LIST_ITEM    ::= PARAGRAPH | PARAGRAPH_PART | <NLGElement>
 

Ideally the '*' should be replaced with '+' to represent that one or more of the components must exist rather than 0 or more. However, the implementation permits creation of the DocumentElements with no children or sub-parts added.

Parameters:

elementCategory - the category we are checking against. If this is NULL the method will return false.

Returns:

true if the supplied elementCategory is a sub-part of this type of category, false otherwise.