org.apache.commons.codec

Interface Decoder

public interface Decoder

Provides the highest level of abstraction for Decoders. This is the sister interface of Encoder. All Decoders implement this common generic interface.

Allows a user to pass a generic Object to any Decoder implementation in the codec package.

One of the two interfaces at the center of the codec package.

Version: $Id: Decoder.java 130304 2004-02-29 04:08:31Z tobrien $

Author: Apache Software Foundation

Method Summary
Objectdecode(Object pObject)
Decodes an "encoded" Object and returns a "decoded" Object.

Method Detail

decode

public Object decode(Object pObject)
Decodes an "encoded" Object and returns a "decoded" Object. Note that the implementation of this interface will try to cast the Object parameter to the specific type expected by a particular Decoder implementation. If a java.lang.ClassCastException occurs this decode method will throw a DecoderException.

Parameters: pObject an object to "decode"

Returns: a 'decoded" object

Throws: DecoderException a decoder exception can be thrown for any number of reasons. Some good candidates are that the parameter passed to this method is null, a param cannot be cast to the appropriate type for a specific encoder.

commons-codec version 1.3 - Copyright © 2002-2004 - Apache Software Foundation