001/* 002 * Copyright 2002-2015 the original author or authors. 003 * 004 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); 005 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. 006 * You may obtain a copy of the License at 007 * 008 * https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 009 * 010 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software 011 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, 012 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. 013 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and 014 * limitations under the License. 015 */ 016 017package org.springframework.core.convert.converter; 018 019/** 020 * A converter converts a source object of type {@code S} to a target of type {@code T}. 021 * 022 * <p>Implementations of this interface are thread-safe and can be shared. 023 * 024 * <p>Implementations may additionally implement {@link ConditionalConverter}. 025 * 026 * @author Keith Donald 027 * @since 3.0 028 * @param <S> the source type 029 * @param <T> the target type 030 */ 031public interface Converter<S, T> { 032 033 /** 034 * Convert the source object of type {@code S} to target type {@code T}. 035 * @param source the source object to convert, which must be an instance of {@code S} (never {@code null}) 036 * @return the converted object, which must be an instance of {@code T} (potentially {@code null}) 037 * @throws IllegalArgumentException if the source cannot be converted to the desired target type 038 */ 039 T convert(S source); 040 041}