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 }