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/*
* Copyright 2002-2015 the original author or authors.
*
* Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
* you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
* You may obtain a copy of the License at
*
* http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
*
* Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
* distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
* WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
* See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
* limitations under the License.
*/
package org.springframework.core.convert.converter;
/**
* A converter converts a source object of type {@code S} to a target of type {@code T}.
*
* Implementations of this interface are thread-safe and can be shared.
*
*
Implementations may additionally implement {@link ConditionalConverter}.
*
* @author Keith Donald
* @since 3.0
* @param the source type
* @param the target type
*/
public interface Converter {
/**
* Convert the source object of type {@code S} to target type {@code T}.
* @param source the source object to convert, which must be an instance of {@code S} (never {@code null})
* @return the converted object, which must be an instance of {@code T} (potentially {@code null})
* @throws IllegalArgumentException if the source cannot be converted to the desired target type
*/
T convert(S source);
}