001// ***************************************************************************************************************************
002// * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file *
003// * distributed with this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file        *
004// * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance            *
005// * with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at                                                              *
006// *                                                                                                                         *
007// *  http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0                                                                             *
008// *                                                                                                                         *
009// * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an  *
010// * "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the        *
011// * specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.                                              *
012// ***************************************************************************************************************************
013package org.apache.juneau.reflect;
014
015/**
016 * An interface for creating objects from other objects such as a <c>String</c> or <c>Reader</c>.
017 *
018 * <h5 class='section'>See Also:</h5><ul>
019 * </ul>
020 *
021 * @param <I> Input type.
022 * @param <O> Output type.
023 */
024public abstract class Mutater<I,O> {
025
026   /**
027    * Method for instantiating an object from another object.
028    *
029    * @param in The input object.
030    * @return The output object.
031    */
032   public O mutate(I in) {
033      return mutate(null, in);
034   }
035
036   /**
037    * Method for instantiating an object from another object.
038    *
039    * @param outer The context object.
040    * @param in The input object.
041    * @return The output object.
042    */
043   public abstract O mutate(Object outer, I in);
044}