001    /*
002     * Copyright (c) 2004 World Wide Web Consortium,
003     *
004     * (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, European Research Consortium for
005     * Informatics and Mathematics, Keio University). All Rights Reserved. This
006     * work is distributed under the W3C(r) Software License [1] in the hope that
007     * it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied
008     * warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
009     *
010     * [1] http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/2002/copyright-software-20021231
011     */
012    
013    package org.w3c.dom;
014    
015    /**
016     * The <code>NodeList</code> interface provides the abstraction of an ordered 
017     * collection of nodes, without defining or constraining how this collection 
018     * is implemented. <code>NodeList</code> objects in the DOM are live.
019     * <p>The items in the <code>NodeList</code> are accessible via an integral 
020     * index, starting from 0.
021     * <p>See also the <a href='http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-DOM-Level-3-Core-20040407'>Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Core Specification</a>.
022     */
023    public interface NodeList {
024        /**
025         * Returns the <code>index</code>th item in the collection. If 
026         * <code>index</code> is greater than or equal to the number of nodes in 
027         * the list, this returns <code>null</code>.
028         * @param index Index into the collection.
029         * @return The node at the <code>index</code>th position in the 
030         *   <code>NodeList</code>, or <code>null</code> if that is not a valid 
031         *   index.
032         */
033        public Node item(int index);
034    
035        /**
036         * The number of nodes in the list. The range of valid child node indices 
037         * is 0 to <code>length-1</code> inclusive.
038         */
039        public int getLength();
040    
041    }