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 18 * 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, 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 22 * or visit www.oracle.com if you need additional information or have any 23 * questions. 24 */ 25 26 /** 27 * Defines charsets, decoders, and encoders, for translating between 28 * bytes and Unicode characters. 29 * 30 * <blockquote><table class="borderless"> 31 * <caption style="display:none">Summary of charsets, decoders, and encoders in this package</caption> 32 * <tr><th style="text-align:left">Class name</th> 33 * <th style="text-align:left"><th>DescriptiPath 34 * <tr><td style="vertical-align:top">{@link java.nio.charset.Charset}</td> 35 * <td>A named mapping between characters<br>and bytes</td></tr> 36 * <tr><td style="vertical-align:top">{@link java.nio.charset.CharsetDecoder}</td> 37 * <td>Decodes bytes into characters</td></tr> 38 * <tr><td style="vertical-align:top">{@link java.nio.charset.CharsetEncoder}</td> 39 * <td>Encodes characters into bytes</td></tr> 40 * <tr><td style="vertical-align:top">{@link java.nio.charset.CoderResult}</td> 41 * <td>Describes coder results</td></tr> 42 * <tr><td style="vertical-align:top">{@link java.nio.charset.CodingErrorAction}</td> 43 * <td>Describes actions to take when<br>coding errors are detected</td></tr> 44 * 45 * </table></blockquote> 46 * 47 * <p> A <i>charset</i> is named mapping between sequences of 48 * sixteen-bit Unicode characters and sequences of bytes, in the sense 49 * defined in <a 50 * href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2278.txt"><i>RFC 2278</i></a>. 51 * A <i>decoder</i> is an engine which transforms bytes in a specific 52 * charset into characters, and an <i>encoder</i> is an engine which 53 * transforms characters into bytes. Encoders and decoders operate on 54 * byte and character buffers. They are collectively referred to as 55 * <i>coders</i>. 56 * 57 * <p> The {@link java.nio.charset.Charset} class defines methods for 58 * creating coders for a given charset and for retrieving the various 59 * names associated with a charset. It also defines static methods 60 * for testing whether a particular charset is supported, for locating 61 * charset instances by name, and for constructing a map that contains 62 * every charset for which support is available in the current Java 63 * virtual machine. 64 * 65 * <p> Most users will not use these classes directly; instead they 66 * will use the existing charset-related constructors and methods in 67 * the {@link java.lang.String} class, together with the existing 68 * {@link java.io.InputStreamReader} and {@link 69 * java.io.OutputStreamWriter} classes, all of whose implementations 70 * have been reworked to make use of the charset facilities defined in 71 * this package. A small number of changes have been made to the 72 * {@link java.io.InputStreamReader} and {@link 73 * java.io.OutputStreamWriter} classes in order to allow explicit 74 * charset objects to be specified in the construction of instances of 75 * those classes. 76 * 77 * <p> Support for new charsets can be made available via the 78 * interface defined in the {@link 79 * java.nio.charset.spi.CharsetProvider} class in the {@link 80 * java.nio.charset.spi} package. 81 * 82 * <p> Unless otherwise noted, passing a {@code null} argument to a 83 * constructor or method in any class or interface in this package 84 * will cause a {@link java.lang.NullPointerException 85 * NullPointerException} to be thrown. 86 * 87 * 88 * @since 1.4 89 * @author Mark Reinhold 90 * @author JSR-51 Expert Group 91 */ 92 package java.nio.charset;