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Artifact with commonly used I/O functionality and for connection related issues such as receiving or transmitting data in a unified way.
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// /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// REFCODES.ORG
// =============================================================================
// This code is copyright (c) by Siegfried Steiner, Munich, Germany and licensed
// under the following (see "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-licensing")
// licenses:
// =============================================================================
// GNU General Public License, v3.0 ("http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.html")
// together with the GPL linking exception applied; as being applied by the GNU
// Classpath ("http://www.gnu.org/software/classpath/license.html")
// =============================================================================
// Apache License, v2.0 ("http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0")
// =============================================================================
// Please contact the copyright holding author(s) of the software artifacts in
// question for licensing issues not being covered by the above listed licenses,
// also regarding commercial licensing models or regarding the compatibility
// with other open source licenses.
// /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

package org.refcodes.io;

import java.io.Serializable;
import java.util.Iterator;
import java.util.ListIterator;

import org.refcodes.io.impls.SerializableIteratorImpl;
import org.refcodes.io.impls.SerializableListIteratorImpl;

/**
 * Utility providing useful serialization methods.
 */
public final class SerializeUtility {

	// /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
	// CONSTRUCTORS:
	// /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

	/**
	 * Private empty constructor to prevent instantiation as of being a utility
	 * with just static public methods.
	 */
	private SerializeUtility() {}

	// /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
	// METHODS:
	// /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

	/**
	 * Converts instances of common non-serializable types such as
	 * {@link Iterator} and {@link ListIterator} into serializable instances.
	 * Testing for the {@link Serializable} interface is not sufficient to
	 * determine whether an instance is serializable as of the special handling
	 * of the {@link Serializable} tag interface in the JVM. Though in case the
	 * type of the instance is not tagged with the {@link Serializable}
	 * interface, then null is returned.
	 * 
	 * In case an instance's type provided is not supported by this method, then
	 * the instance is returned as is; it might already be serializable.
	 * 
	 * @param aObject The object to be turned into a serializable counterpart.
	 *        In case it is not identified or supported (it might already be
	 *        fully serializable), then the instance is returned unmodified.
	 * 
	 * @return The serializable counterpart of the provided instance in case the
	 *         type is supported by this method or the instance in case it is
	 *         {@link Serializable}. In case the type of the instance is not
	 *         tagged with the {@link Serializable} interface, then
	 *         null is returned.
	 */
	@SuppressWarnings({
			"rawtypes", "unchecked"
	})
	public static Serializable toSerializable( Object aObject ) {

		if ( (aObject instanceof ListIterator) && (!(aObject instanceof SerializableListIteratorImpl)) ) {
			return new SerializableListIteratorImpl( (ListIterator) aObject );
		}

		if ( (aObject instanceof Iterator) && (!(aObject instanceof SerializableIteratorImpl)) ) {
			return new SerializableIteratorImpl( (Iterator) aObject );
		}

		if ( !(aObject instanceof Serializable) ) {
			return null;
		}
		return (Serializable) aObject;
	}

}