content: /*
   * ORACLE PROPRIETARY/CONFIDENTIAL. Use is subject to license terms.
   *
   *
   *
   *
   *
   *
   *
   *
   *
   *
   *
   *
   *
   *
   *
   *
   *
   *
   *
   *
   */
  
  /*
   *
   *
   *
   *
   *
   * Copyright (c) 2002 World Wide Web Consortium,
   * (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Institut National de
   * Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique, Keio University). All
   * Rights Reserved. This program is distributed under the W3C's Software
   * Intellectual Property License. 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 W3C License http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ for more details.
   */
  
  package org.w3c.dom.xpath;
  
  
  import org.w3c.dom.Node;
  import org.w3c.dom.DOMException;
  
  /**
   * The <code>XPathExpression</code> interface represents a parsed and resolved
   * XPath expression.
   * <p>See also the <a href='http://www.w3.org/2002/08/WD-DOM-Level-3-XPath-20020820'>Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 XPath Specification</a>.
   */
  public interface XPathExpression {
      /**
       * Evaluates this XPath expression and returns a result.
       * @param contextNode The <code>context</code> is context node for the
       *   evaluation of this XPath expression.If the XPathEvaluator was
       *   obtained by casting the <code>Document</code> then this must be
       *   owned by the same document and must be a <code>Document</code>,
       *   <code>Element</code>, <code>Attribute</code>, <code>Text</code>,
       *   <code>CDATASection</code>, <code>Comment</code>,
       *   <code>ProcessingInstruction</code>, or <code>XPathNamespace</code>
       *   node.If the context node is a <code>Text</code> or a
       *   <code>CDATASection</code>, then the context is interpreted as the
       *   whole logical text node as seen by XPath, unless the node is empty
       *   in which case it may not serve as the XPath context.
       * @param type If a specific <code>type</code> is specified, then the
       *   result will be coerced to return the specified type relying on
       *   XPath conversions and fail if the desired coercion is not possible.
       *   This must be one of the type codes of <code>XPathResult</code>.
       * @param result The <code>result</code> specifies a specific result
       *   object which may be reused and returned by this method. If this is
       *   specified as <code>null</code>or the implementation does not reuse
       *   the specified result, a new result object will be constructed and
       *   returned.For XPath 1.0 results, this object will be of type
       *   <code>XPathResult</code>.
       * @return The result of the evaluation of the XPath expression.For XPath
       *   1.0 results, this object will be of type <code>XPathResult</code>.
       * @exception XPathException
       *   TYPE_ERR: Raised if the result cannot be converted to return the
       *   specified type.
       * @exception DOMException
       *   WRONG_DOCUMENT_ERR: The Node is from a document that is not supported
       *   by the XPathEvaluator that created this <code>XPathExpression</code>
       *   .
       *   <br>NOT_SUPPORTED_ERR: The Node is not a type permitted as an XPath
       *   context node or the request type is not permitted by this
       *   <code>XPathExpression</code>.
       */
      public Object evaluate(Node contextNode,
                             short type,
                             Object result)
              throws XPathException, DOMException;
  
  }