1 /* 2 * Copyright 2004 The Apache Software Foundation 3 * 4 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); 5 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. 6 * You may obtain a copy of the License at 7 * 8 * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 9 * 10 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software 11 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, 12 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. 13 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and 14 * limitations under the License. 15 */ 16 package org.apache.commons.convert; 17 18 /** 19 * Defines a class that can convert one object to an object of another type. 20 * <p> 21 * All configuration data for the conversion must be set on the converter 22 * separately. 23 * 24 * @author Stephen Colebourne 25 * @version $Id: Conversion.java 155441 2005-02-26 13:19:22Z dirkv $ 26 * @since 1.0 27 */ 28 public interface Conversion { 29 30 /** 31 * Convert the specified input object into an output object 32 * of the another type. 33 * 34 * @param value the value to be converted, read only, may be null 35 * @param converter the converter being used, not null 36 * @return the converted value 37 * @throws Exception if conversion fails, use ConversionException if creating 38 * a new exception, otherwise just allow exceptions to be thrown 39 */ 40 Object convert(Object value, Converter converter) throws Exception; 41 42 /** 43 * The type to convert from. 44 * 45 * @return the Class object representing the class to convert to 46 */ 47 Class getFromType(); 48 49 /** 50 * The type to convert to. 51 * 52 * @return the Class object representing the class to convert from 53 */ 54 Class getToType(); 55 56 }