1 /*
2 * Copyright (c) 2001, 2010, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
3 * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
4 *
5 * This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
6 * under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as
7 * published by the Free Software Foundation. Oracle designates this
8 * particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided
9 * by Oracle in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code.
10 *
11 * This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
12 * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
13 * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
14 * version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that
15 * accompanied this code).
16 *
17 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version
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19 * Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
20 *
21 * Please contact Oracle, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood Shores, CA 94065 USA
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24 */
25
26 /**
27 * Defines charsets, decoders, and encoders, for translating between
28 * bytes and Unicode characters.
29 *
30 * <blockquote><table cellspacing=1 cellpadding=0 summary="Summary of charsets, decoders, and encoders in this package">
31 * <tr><th align="left">Class name</th><th align="left">Description</th></tr>
32 * <tr><td valign=top>{@link java.nio.charset.Charset}</td>
33 * <td>A named mapping between characters<br>and bytes</td></tr>
34 * <tr><td valign=top>{@link java.nio.charset.CharsetDecoder}</td>
35 * <td>Decodes bytes into characters</td></tr>
36 * <tr><td valign=top>{@link java.nio.charset.CharsetEncoder} </td>
37 * <td>Encodes characters into bytes</td></tr>
38 * <tr><td valign=top>{@link java.nio.charset.CoderResult} </td>
39 * <td>Describes coder results</td></tr>
40 * <tr><td valign=top>{@link java.nio.charset.CodingErrorAction} </td>
41 * <td>Describes actions to take when<br>coding errors are detected</td></tr>
42 *
43 * </table></blockquote>
44 *
45 * <p> A <i>charset</i> is named mapping between sequences of
46 * sixteen-bit Unicode characters and sequences of bytes, in the sense
47 * defined in <a
48 * href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2278.txt"><i>RFC 2278</i></a>.
49 * A <i>decoder</i> is an engine which transforms bytes in a specific
50 * charset into characters, and an <i>encoder</i> is an engine which
51 * transforms characters into bytes. Encoders and decoders operate on
52 * byte and character buffers. They are collectively referred to as
53 * <i>coders</i>.
54 *
55 * <p> The {@link java.nio.charset.Charset} class defines methods for
56 * creating coders for a given charset and for retrieving the various
57 * names associated with a charset. It also defines static methods
58 * for testing whether a particular charset is supported, for locating
59 * charset instances by name, and for constructing a map that contains
60 * every charset for which support is available in the current Java
61 * virtual machine.
62 *
63 * <p> Most users will not use these classes directly; instead they
64 * will use the existing charset-related constructors and methods in
65 * the {@link java.lang.String} class, together with the existing
66 * {@link java.io.InputStreamReader} and {@link
67 * java.io.OutputStreamWriter} classes, all of whose implementations
68 * have been reworked to make use of the charset facilities defined in
69 * this package. A small number of changes have been made to the
70 * {@link java.io.InputStreamReader} and {@link
71 * java.io.OutputStreamWriter} classes in order to allow explicit
72 * charset objects to be specified in the construction of instances of
73 * those classes.
74 *
75 * <p> Support for new charsets can be made available via the
76 * interface defined in the {@link
77 * java.nio.charset.spi.CharsetProvider} class in the <tt>{@link
78 * java.nio.charset.spi}</tt> package.
79 *
80 * <p> Unless otherwise noted, passing a <tt>null</tt> argument to a
81 * constructor or method in any class or interface in this package
82 * will cause a {@link java.lang.NullPointerException
83 * NullPointerException} to be thrown.
84 *
85 *
86 * @since 1.4
87 * @author Mark Reinhold
88 * @author JSR-51 Expert Group
89 */
90 package java.nio.charset;