content: /*
   *    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 2 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, write to the Free Software
   *    Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
   */
  
  /*
   * CARuleMiner.java
   * Copyright (C) 2004 University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand
   *
   */
  
  package weka.associations;
  
  import weka.core.FastVector;
  import weka.core.Instances;
  import weka.core.OptionHandler;
  
  /** 
   * Interface for learning class association rules. All schemes for learning
   * class association rules implemement this interface.
   *
   * @author Stefan Mutter (mutter@cs.waikato.ac.nz)
   * @version $Revision: 1.3 $ 
   */
  public interface CARuleMiner extends OptionHandler  {
      
      /**
       * Method for mining class association rules.
       * Must initialize all fields of the CARuleMiner that are not being set via options (ie. multiple calls of mineCARs
       * must always lead to the same result). Must not change the dataset in any way.
       * @param data the insatnces for which class association rules are mined
       * @throws Exception throws exception if class association rules cannot be mined
       * @return class association rules and their scoring metric in an FastVector array
       */    
   public FastVector[] mineCARs(Instances data) throws Exception;
  
   /**
    * Gets the instances without the class attribute
    * @return the instances withoput the class attribute
    */ 
   public Instances getInstancesNoClass();
   
   /**
    * Gets the class attribute and its values for all instances
    * @return the class attribute and its values for all instances
    */ 
   public Instances getInstancesOnlyClass();
   
   /**
    * Gets name of the scoring metric used for car mining
    * @return string containing the name of the scoring metric
    */ 
   public String metricString();
   
   /**
    * Sets the class index for the class association rule miner
    * @param index the class index
    */ 
   public void setClassIndex(int index);
   
  }
  