////  OpenForecast - open source, general-purpose forecasting package.//  Copyright (C) 2002  Steven R. Gould////  This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or//  modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public//  License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either//  version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.////  This library 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//  Lesser General Public License for more details.////  You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public//  License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software//  Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307  USA//package net.sourceforge.openforecast;/** * Defines the interface to a single data point, consisting of one value of a * dependent variable, and one or more values of independent variables. Note * that a data point can refer to a previously observed data value, or a * future forecast value. * * <p>Note that in earlier versions DataPoint was defined as a class (not an * interface). Therefore any code written using OpenForecast 0.20 or earlier * that instantiates DataPoint objects directly will need to be modified. Use * the Observation class instead. * @see Observation * @author Steven R. Gould * @since 0.3 */public interface DataPoint{	/**	 * Sets the dependent variables' value to the given value.	 * @param value the new value for the dependent variable.	 */	public void setDependentValue( double value );	/**	 * Returns the current value assigned to the dependent variable. This value	 * can be changed by calling setDependentValue.	 * @return the current value of the dependent variable.	 */	public double getDependentValue();	/**	 * Sets the named independent variables' value to the given value. Each	 * data point can have one or more name-value pairs that represent the	 * independent variables and their associated values.	 * @param value the new value for the dependent variable.	 */	public void setIndependentValue( String name, double value );	/**	 * Returns the current value assigned to the named independent variable.	 * This value can be changed by calling setIndependentValue.	 * @param name the name of the independent variable required.	 * @return the current value of the named independent variable.	 */	public double getIndependentValue( String name );	/**	 * Returns an array of all independent variable names. No checks are made	 * to ensure that the names are unique. Rather, the names are extracted	 * directly from the names used in defining and initializing the data point.	 * @return an array of independent variable names for this data point.	 */	public String[] getIndependentVariableNames();	/**	 * Compares the given DataPoint object to the current DataPoint object,	 * and returns true if, and only if, the two data points represent the same	 * data point. That is, the dependent value matches for the matching	 * independent values.	 * @param dp the DataPoint to compare this DataPoint object to.	 * @return true if the given DataPoint object represents the same data	 *         point as this DataPoint object.	 */	public boolean equals( DataPoint dp );}