    001/*
    002 * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
    003 * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
    004 * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
    005 * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
    006 * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
    007 * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
    008 *
    009 *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
    010 *
    011 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
    012 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
    013 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
    014 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
    015 * limitations under the License.
    016 */
    017
    018package org.apache.commons.codec;
    019
    020/**
    021 * Defines common decoding methods for byte array decoders.
    022 *
    023 */
    024public interface BinaryDecoder extends Decoder {
    025
    026    /**
    027     * Decodes a byte array and returns the results as a byte array.
    028     *
    029     * @param source
    030     *            A byte array which has been encoded with the appropriate encoder
    031     * @return a byte array that contains decoded content
    032     * @throws DecoderException
    033     *             A decoder exception is thrown if a Decoder encounters a failure condition during the decode process.
    034     */
    035    byte[] decode(byte[] source) throws DecoderException;
    036}
    037