    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    package org.apache.commons.lang3.text;
    018
    019    import java.text.Format;
    020    import java.util.Locale;
    021
    022    /**
    023     * Format factory.
    024     *
    025     * @since 2.4
    026     * @version $Id: FormatFactory.java 1088899 2011-04-05 05:31:27Z bayard $
    027     */
    028    public interface FormatFactory {
    029
    030        /**
    031         * Create or retrieve a format instance.
    032         *
    033         * @param name The format type name
    034         * @param arguments Arguments used to create the format instance. This allows the
    035         *                  <code>FormatFactory</code> to implement the "format style"
    036         *                  concept from <code>java.text.MessageFormat</code>.
    037         * @param locale The locale, may be null
    038         * @return The format instance
    039         */
    040        Format getFormat(String name, String arguments, Locale locale);
    041
    042    }