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    
018    package org.apache.commons.codec;
019    
020    /**
021     * Defines common decoding methods for byte array decoders.
022     *
023     * @version $Id: BinaryDecoder.html 889935 2013-12-11 05:05:13Z ggregory $
024     */
025    public interface BinaryDecoder extends Decoder {
026    
027        /**
028         * Decodes a byte array and returns the results as a byte array.
029         *
030         * @param source
031         *            A byte array which has been encoded with the appropriate encoder
032         * @return a byte array that contains decoded content
033         * @throws DecoderException
034         *             A decoder exception is thrown if a Decoder encounters a failure condition during the decode process.
035         */
036        byte[] decode(byte[] source) throws DecoderException;
037    }
038