public int encode(ByteBuffer buffer) {
        encodeThis(buffer);
        int itemCount = 1;

        for (Iterator<Item> i = getItemIterator(); i.hasNext();) {
            Item subitem = i.next();

            itemCount += subitem.encode(buffer);
        }
        return itemCount;
    }
Returns a read only list of the immediate children of this
container-search/src/main/java/com/yahoo/prelude/query/CompositeItem.java