package username.sorting;

import java.util.Comparator;
import java.util.Vector;

/**
 * Things that can sort vectors and return new sorted vectors.
 *
 * @author Samuel A. Rebelsky
 * @version 1.0 of May 2005
 */
public interface OutOfPlaceVectorSorter<T>
{
  /**
   * Sort a vector using a particular comparator.
   *
   * @param
   *   vec, a Vector
   * @param
   *   c, a Comparator
   * @return
   *   sorted, a sorted Vector
   * @pre
   *   The comparator can be applied to any pair of elements
   *     in the original vector.
   * @post
   *   c.compare(sorted.get(i),sorted.get(i+1)) < 0 for all
   *     "reasonable" values of i.
   *   sorted is a permutation of vec
   */
  public Vector<T> sort(Vector<T> vec, Comparator<T> c);
} // interface OutOfPlaceVectorSorter