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/*
 * Copyright 2004-2005 Sun Microsystems, Inc.  All rights reserved.
 * Use is subject to license terms.
 */

/*
 * $Id: StringStatistic.java,v 1.3 2007/05/05 05:25:48 tcfujii Exp $
 * $Date: 2007/05/05 05:25:48 $
 * $Revision: 1.3 $
 */

package com.sun.enterprise.admin.monitor.stats;
import javax.management.j2ee.statistics.Statistic;

/**
 * Custom statistic type created for the Sun ONE Application Server.
 * The goal is to be able to represent changing attribute values that are strings
 * in the form of Statistics. Semantically, it is analogous to a {@link CountStatistic},
 * the only difference being in the value that is returned. Unlike a CountStatistic
 * (which always is unidirectional), this Statistic type is not having any
 * specified direction, simply because there is no natural order. An example
 * of the values that an instance of this statistic type can assume is: A State
 * Statistic which can have "CONNECTED, CLOSED, DISCONNECTED" as the permissible
 * values and the current value can be any one of them (and them only). 
 * The permissible values
 * are upto a particular implementation.
 * @author Muralidhar Vempaty
 * @author Kedar Mhaswade
 * @since S1AS8.0
 * @version 1.0
 */
public interface StringStatistic extends Statistic {
    
    /**
     * Returns the String value of the statistic.
     */
    public String getCurrent(); 
}