* VoidArea is now called BinArea (less confusing name),

[gdcm.git] / src / gdcmDocEntrySet.h

diff --git a/src/gdcmDocEntrySet.h b/src/gdcmDocEntrySet.h
index e3af97b3cbb4998ff58a706f47b218f6d434a2a8..c9e6b23421dcebc122df1ece28f46d99aa8afe92 100644 (file)
--- a/src/gdcmDocEntrySet.h
+++ b/src/gdcmDocEntrySet.h
@@ -3,8 +3,8 @@
   Program:   gdcm
   Module:    $RCSfile: gdcmDocEntrySet.h,v $
   Language:  C++
-  Date:      $Date: 2004/08/01 03:20:23 $
-  Version:   $Revision: 1.14 $
+  Date:      $Date: 2004/09/16 19:21:57 $
+  Version:   $Revision: 1.18 $
                                                                                 
   Copyright (c) CREATIS (Centre de Recherche et d'Applications en Traitement de
   l'Image). All rights reserved. See Doc/License.txt or
@@ -22,14 +22,36 @@
 #include "gdcmException.h"
 #include "gdcmDocEntry.h"
  
+typedef std::string gdcmBaseTagKey;
 //-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
+/**
+ * \ref gdcmDocEntrySet is an abstract base class for \ref gdcmElementSet
+ * and \ref gdcmSQItem which are both containers for gdcmDocEntries.
+ * \ref gdcmElementSet is based on the STL map<> container
+ * (see \ref gdcmElementSet::TagHT), as opposed to \ref gdcmSQItem
+ * which is based on an STL list container (see \ref gdcmSQItem::docEntries).
+ * Since the syntax for adding a new element to a map<> or a list<>
+ * differ, \ref gdcmDocEntrySet is designed as an adapter to unify the
+ * interfaces of \ref gdcmDocEntrySet and \ref gdcmElementSet.
+ * As an illustration of this design, please refer to the implementation
+ * of \ref AddEntry (or any pure virtual method) in both derived classes.
+ * This adapter unification of interfaces enables the parsing of a
+ * DICOM header containing (optionaly heavily nested) sequences to be
+ * written recursively [see \ref gdcmDocument::ParseDES 
+ * which calls \ref gdcmDocument::ParseSQ, which in turns calls 
+ * \ref gdcmDocument::ParseDES ].
+ *
+ * \note Developpers should strongly resist to the temptation of adding
+ *       members to this class since this class is designed as an adapter 
+ *       in the form of an abstract base class.
+ */
 class GDCM_EXPORT gdcmDocEntrySet
 {
 public:
 
-   gdcmDocEntrySet(int depth = 0); 
-   virtual ~gdcmDocEntrySet();
+   gdcmDocEntrySet() {}
+   virtual ~gdcmDocEntrySet() {}
 
    /// \brief adds any type of entry to the entry set (pure vitual)
    virtual bool AddEntry(gdcmDocEntry *Entry) = 0; // pure virtual
@@ -40,14 +62,6 @@ public:
    /// \brief write any type of entry to the entry set
    virtual void Write (FILE *fp, FileType filetype) = 0;// pure virtual
 
-   /// \brief Gets the depth level of a Dicom Header Entry embedded in a
-   ///        SeQuence
-   int GetDepthLevel() { return SQDepthLevel; }
-
-   /// \brief Sets the depth level of a Dicom Header Entry embedded in a
-   /// SeQuence
-   void SetDepthLevel(int depth) { SQDepthLevel = depth; }
-
    virtual gdcmDocEntry* GetDocEntryByNumber(uint16_t group,
                                              uint16_t element) = 0;
    gdcmDocEntry *GetDocEntryByName(std::string const & name);
@@ -68,15 +82,17 @@ protected:
                                      uint16_t element);
    gdcmDocEntry* NewDocEntryByNumber(uint16_t group, 
                                      uint16_t element); 
+   gdcmDocEntry* NewDocEntryByNumber(uint16_t group, 
+                                     uint16_t element,
+                                     std::string const & VR); 
    gdcmDocEntry* NewDocEntryByName  (std::string const & name);
+   gdcmSeqEntry* NewSeqEntryByNumber(uint16_t group, 
+                                     uint16_t element);
 
 // DictEntry  related utilities
    gdcmDictEntry *GetDictEntryByName  (std::string const & name);
    gdcmDictEntry *GetDictEntryByNumber(uint16_t, uint16_t);
 
-   /// Gives the depth level of the element set inside SeQuences   
-   int SQDepthLevel;
-private:
 };