001/*
002 * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
003 * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
004 * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
005 * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
006 * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
007 * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
008 *
009 *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
010 *
011 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
012 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
013 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
014 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
015 * limitations under the License.
016 */
017
018package org.apache.commons.codec;
019
020/**
021 * Defines common encoding methods for byte array encoders.
022 *
023 * @version $Id: BinaryEncoder.java 1379145 2012-08-30 21:02:52Z tn $
024 */
025public interface BinaryEncoder extends Encoder {
026
027    /**
028     * Encodes a byte array and return the encoded data as a byte array.
029     *
030     * @param source
031     *            Data to be encoded
032     * @return A byte array containing the encoded data
033     * @throws EncoderException
034     *             thrown if the Encoder encounters a failure condition during the encoding process.
035     */
036    byte[] encode(byte[] source) throws EncoderException;
037}
038