/* * Copyright (c) 2001, 2010, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER. * * This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it * under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as * published by the Free Software Foundation. Oracle designates this * particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided * by Oracle in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code. * * This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License * version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that * accompanied this code). * * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version * 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, * Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA. * * Please contact Oracle, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood Shores, CA 94065 USA * or visit www.oracle.com if you need additional information or have any * questions. */ /** * Defines charsets, decoders, and encoders, for translating between * bytes and Unicode characters. * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Class nameDescription
{@link java.nio.charset.Charset}A named mapping between characters
and bytes
{@link java.nio.charset.CharsetDecoder}Decodes bytes into characters
{@link java.nio.charset.CharsetEncoder}  Encodes characters into bytes
{@link java.nio.charset.CoderResult}  Describes coder results
{@link java.nio.charset.CodingErrorAction}  Describes actions to take when
coding errors are detected
* *

A charset is named mapping between sequences of * sixteen-bit Unicode characters and sequences of bytes, in the sense * defined in RFC 2278. * A decoder is an engine which transforms bytes in a specific * charset into characters, and an encoder is an engine which * transforms characters into bytes. Encoders and decoders operate on * byte and character buffers. They are collectively referred to as * coders. * *

The {@link java.nio.charset.Charset} class defines methods for * creating coders for a given charset and for retrieving the various * names associated with a charset. It also defines static methods * for testing whether a particular charset is supported, for locating * charset instances by name, and for constructing a map that contains * every charset for which support is available in the current Java * virtual machine. * *

Most users will not use these classes directly; instead they * will use the existing charset-related constructors and methods in * the {@link java.lang.String} class, together with the existing * {@link java.io.InputStreamReader} and {@link * java.io.OutputStreamWriter} classes, all of whose implementations * have been reworked to make use of the charset facilities defined in * this package. A small number of changes have been made to the * {@link java.io.InputStreamReader} and {@link * java.io.OutputStreamWriter} classes in order to allow explicit * charset objects to be specified in the construction of instances of * those classes. * *

Support for new charsets can be made available via the * interface defined in the {@link * java.nio.charset.spi.CharsetProvider} class in the {@link * java.nio.charset.spi} package. * *

Unless otherwise noted, passing a null argument to a * constructor or method in any class or interface in this package * will cause a {@link java.lang.NullPointerException * NullPointerException} to be thrown. * * * @since 1.4 * @author Mark Reinhold * @author JSR-51 Expert Group */ package java.nio.charset;