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/*
* Copyright (c) 2010, 2011, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
* DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
*
* This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
* under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as
* published by the Free Software Foundation.
*
* This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
* ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
* FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
* version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that
* accompanied this code).
*
* You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version
* 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
* Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
*
* Please contact Oracle, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood Shores, CA 94065 USA
* or visit www.oracle.com if you need additional information or have any
* questions.
*/
/**
* Given an input object maps to an appropriate output object. A mapper may
* variously provide a mapping between types, object instances or keys and
* values or any other form of transformation upon the input.
*
* <p/>All mapper implementations are expected to:
* <ul>
* <li>Provide stable results such that for any {@code t} the result of two
* {@code map} operations are always equivalent. ie.<pre>
* Foo one = mapper.map(a);
* Foo two = mapper.map(a);
*
* assert one.equals(two) && two.equals(one);
* </pre></li>
* <li>Equivalent input objects should map to equivalent output objects. ie.<pre>
* assert a.equals(b); // a and b are equivalent
*
* Foo x = mapper.map(a);
* Foo y = mapper.map(b);
*
* assert x.equals(y); // their mapped results should be as equivalent.
* </pre></li>
* <li>The mapper should not modify the input object in any way that would
* change the mapping.</li>
* <li>When used for aggregate operations upon many elements mappers
* should not assume that the {@code map} operation will be called upon elements
* in any specific order.</li>
* </ul>
*
* @param <R> the type of output objects from {@code map} operation. May be the
* @param <T> the type of input objects provided to the {@code map} operation.
* same type as {@code <T>}.
*/
public interface TMapper<R, T> {
/**
* Map the provided input object to an appropriate output object.
*
* @param t the input object to be mapped.
* @return the mapped output object.
*/
R map(T t);
}