1 /* 2 * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more 3 * contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with 4 * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership. 5 * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0 6 * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with 7 * the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at 8 * 9 * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 10 * 11 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software 12 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, 13 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. 14 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and 15 * limitations under the License. 16 */ 17 package org.apache.commons.collections4; 18 19 /** 20 * Defines a functor interface implemented by classes that create objects. 21 * <p> 22 * A {@code Factory} creates an object without using an input parameter. 23 * If an input parameter is required, then {@link Transformer} is more appropriate. 24 * </p> 25 * <p> 26 * Standard implementations of common factories are provided by 27 * {@link FactoryUtils}. These include factories that return a constant, 28 * a copy of a prototype or a new instance. 29 * </p> 30 * 31 * @param <T> the type that the factory creates 32 * 33 * @since 2.1 34 */ 35 @FunctionalInterface 36 public interface Factory<T> { 37 38 /** 39 * Create a new object. 40 * 41 * @return a new object 42 * @throws FunctorException (runtime) if the factory cannot create an object 43 */ 44 T create(); 45 46 }