org.fiolino.common.reflection.ConverterLocator Maven / Gradle / Ivy
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package org.fiolino.common.reflection;
import javax.annotation.Nullable;
/**
* Interface to find some converting values from one type to another.
*
* Created by Kuli on 6/17/2016.
*/
public interface ConverterLocator {
/**
* Finds a MethodHandle that converts from the source type to some target type.
*
* The handle will accept exactly one argument matching the source, and returns a result as one of the target types.
*
* The resulting handle is not necessarily of the exact same type. Possibly the handle needs some explicit type case.
*
* If the types can be casted on their own, and there is no converter for the explicit conversion,
* then null is returned whoch means the caller should just use asType() or something like that.
*
* If there is no matching converter and the types don't match, a {@link NoMatchingConverterException} is thrown.
*
* @param source The input type
* @param targets The output type; must be at least one
* @return A MethodHandle of type (<source>)<target>, where source may also be a more generic
* type, and target may be a more specific type.
*/
Converter find(Class source, Class... targets);
}