## org.biojava.bio.search
Interface BioMatcher

All Known Implementing Classes:
  MaxMismatchMatcher

    public interface BioMatcher

Interface for things that perform matches.

These will almost always be produced by a factory method on a BioPattern object.

Author:
  Matthew Pocock

Method Summary
`int` `end()` Get the last symbol index that matches the pattern.
`boolean` `find()` Attempt to find the next match.
`SymbolList` `group()` Get the matching region as a SymbolList.
`int` `start()` Get the first symbol index that matches the pattern.

Method Detail

### find

    boolean find()

  Attempt to find the next match.

  If the pattern can be found, then this will return true. If it could not, then it will return false. This is convenient within for or while loops.

  Each time this is called, the next match will be found. The start() and end() values will increase each time, regardless of wether you called any other methods.

  Returns:
    true if there is another match

### start

    int start()

  Get the first symbol index that matches the pattern.

  Returns:
    the start of the current match
  Throws:
    `IllegalStateException` - if there is no current match

### end

    int end()

  Get the last symbol index that matches the pattern.

  Returns:
    the end of the current match
  Throws:
    `IllegalStateException` - if there is no current match

### group

    SymbolList group()

  Get the matching region as a SymbolList.

  Returns:
    the matching symbols
  Throws:
    `IllegalStateException` - if there is no current match