001    /*
002     *  Copyright 2010 Stephen Colebourne
003     *
004     *  Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
005     *  you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
006     *  You may obtain a copy of the License at
007     *
008     *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
009     *
010     *  Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
011     *  distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
012     *  WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
013     *  See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
014     *  limitations under the License.
015     */
016    package org.joda.convert;
017    
018    /**
019     * Interface defining conversion to a {@code String}.
020     * <p>
021     * ToStringConverter is an interface and must be implemented with care.
022     * Implementations must be immutable and thread-safe.
023     * 
024     * @param <T>  the type of the converter
025     */
026    public interface ToStringConverter<T> {
027    
028        /**
029         * Converts the specified object to a {@code String}.
030         * @param object  the object to convert, not null
031         * @return the converted string, may be null but generally not
032         */
033        String convertToString(T object);
034    
035    }