001    /*
002     * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
003     * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
004     * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
005     * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
006     * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
007     * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
008     * 
009     *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
010     * 
011     * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
012     * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
013     * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
014     * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
015     * limitations under the License.
016     */
017    
018    package org.apache.commons.codec;
019    
020    /**
021     * Defines common decoding methods for String decoders.
022     *
023     * @author Apache Software Foundation
024     * @version $Id: StringDecoder.java 1080701 2011-03-11 17:52:27Z ggregory $
025     */
026    public interface StringDecoder extends Decoder {
027        
028        /**
029         * Decodes a String and returns a String.
030         * 
031         * @param source the String to decode
032         * 
033         * @return the encoded String
034         * 
035         * @throws DecoderException thrown if there is
036         *  an error condition during the Encoding process.
037         */
038        String decode(String source) throws DecoderException;
039    }  
040