* E} is an {@link Enum} type, use {@link EnumSet#noneOf} instead. Otherwise, strongly consider
   * using a {@code LinkedHashSet} instead, at the cost of increased memory footprint, to get
   * deterministic iteration behavior.
   *
   * <p><b>Note:</b> this method is now unnecessary and should be treated as deprecated. Instead,

  /**
   * Returns an unmodifiable view of the specified map entry. The {@link Entry#setValue} operation
   * throws an {@link UnsupportedOperationException}. This also has the side effect of redefining
   * {@code equals} to comply with the Entry contract, to avoid a possible nefarious implementation
   * of equals.
   *
   * @param entry the entry for which to return an unmodifiable view
   * @return an unmodifiable view of the entry
   */

    return new MergingIterator<>(iterators, comparator);
  }

  /**
   * An iterator that performs a lazy N-way merge, calculating the next value each time the iterator
   * is polled. This amortizes the sorting cost over the iteration and requires less memory than
   * sorting all elements at once.
   *
   * <p>Retrieving a single element takes approximately O(log(M)) time, where M is the number of