src/main/java/org/apache/commons/lang3/time/DateParser.java

/*
 * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
 * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
 * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
 * The ASF licenses this file to You 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.apache.commons.lang3.time;

import java.text.ParseException;
import java.text.ParsePosition;
import java.util.Date;
import java.util.Locale;
import java.util.TimeZone;

/**
 * <p>DateParser is the "missing" interface for the parsing methods of 
 * {@link java.text.DateFormat}.</p>
 * 
 * @since 3.2
 */
public interface DateParser {

    /**
     * Equivalent to DateFormat.parse(String). 
     * 
     * See {@link java.text.DateFormat#parse(String)} for more information. 
     * @param source A <code>String</code> whose beginning should be parsed. 
     * @return A <code>Date</code> parsed from the string
     * @throws ParseException if the beginning of the specified string cannot be parsed.
     */
    Date parse(String source) throws ParseException;

    /**
     * Equivalent to DateFormat.parse(String, ParsePosition). 
     * 
     * See {@link java.text.DateFormat#parse(String, ParsePosition)} for more information. 
     * 
     * @param source A <code>String</code>, part of which should be parsed.
     * @param pos A <code>ParsePosition</code> object with index and error index information 
     * as described above. 
     * @return A <code>Date</code> parsed from the string. In case of error, returns null. 
     * @throws NullPointerException if text or pos is null.
     */
    Date parse(String source, ParsePosition pos);

    // Accessors
    //-----------------------------------------------------------------------
    /**
     * <p>Get the pattern used by this parser.</p>
     * 
     * @return the pattern, {@link java.text.SimpleDateFormat} compatible
     */
    String getPattern();

    /**
     * <p>
     * Get the time zone used by this parser.
     * </p>
     * 
     * <p>
     * The default {@link TimeZone} used to create a {@link Date} when the {@link TimeZone} is not specified by
     * the format pattern.
     * </p>
     * 
     * @return the time zone
     */
    TimeZone getTimeZone();

    /**
     * <p>Get the locale used by this parser.</p>
     * 
     * @return the locale
     */
    Locale getLocale();

    /**
     * Parses text from a string to produce a Date.
     * 
     * @param source A <code>String</code> whose beginning should be parsed.
     * @return a <code>java.util.Date</code> object
     * @throws ParseException if the beginning of the specified string cannot be parsed.
     * @see java.text.DateFormat#parseObject(String) 
     */
    Object parseObject(String source) throws ParseException;

    /**
     * Parse a date/time string according to the given parse position.
     * 
     * @param source A <code>String</code> whose beginning should be parsed.
     * @param pos the parse position
     * @return a <code>java.util.Date</code> object
     * @see java.text.DateFormat#parseObject(String, ParsePosition) 
     */
    Object parseObject(String source, ParsePosition pos);
}