/*
* Copyright 2002-2009 the original author or authors.
*
* Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
* you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
* You may obtain a copy of the License at
*
* http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
*
* Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
* distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
* WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
* See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
* limitations under the License.
*/
package org.springframework.core.convert.converter;
import org.springframework.core.convert.TypeDescriptor;
/**
* A generic converter that conditionally executes.
*
* <p>Applies a rule that determines if a converter between a set of
* {@link #getConvertibleTypes() convertible types} matches given a client request to
* convert between a source field of convertible type S and a target field of convertible type T.
*
* <p>Often used to selectively match custom conversion logic based on the presence of
* a field or class-level characteristic, such as an annotation or method. For example,
* when converting from a String field to a Date field, an implementation might return
* <code>true</code> if the target field has also been annotated with <code>@DateTimeFormat</code>.
*
* <p>As another example, when converting from a String field to an Account field,
* an implementation might return true if the target Account class defines a
* <code>public static findAccount(String)</code> method.
*
* @author Keith Donald
* @since 3.0
*/
public interface ConditionalGenericConverter extends GenericConverter {
/**
* Should the converter from <code>sourceType</code> to <code>targetType</code>
* currently under consideration be selected?
* @param sourceType the type descriptor of the field we are converting from
* @param targetType the type descriptor of the field we are converting to
* @return true if conversion should be performed, false otherwise
*/
boolean matches(TypeDescriptor sourceType, TypeDescriptor targetType);
}
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