//=====================================================================
// File:    SortableData.java
// Class:   SortableData
// Package: AFLPcore
//
// Author:  James J. Benham
// Date:    August 10, 1998
// Contact: james_benham@hmc.edu
//
// Genographer v1.0 - Computer assisted scoring of gels.
// Copyright (C) 1998  Montana State University
// 
// 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; version 2
// of the 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 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., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA.
//
// The GNU General Public License is distributed in the file GPL
//=====================================================================

package AFLPcore;

/**
 * This class allows subclasses that extend it to be sorted into an order.
 *
 * @author James J. Benham
 * @version 1.0.0
 * @date August 10, 1998
 */

public abstract class SortableData extends Data
{
  /**
   * This method returns a value for this object that can be used to order
   * the object. For example, a peak would return it's loction in bp.
   *
   * @return the value used to search or sort this object
   */
  public abstract double getSearchKey();
}