An interface defining the possible data type conversions supported by the configuration framework.
This interface defines a couple of methods related to different kinds of data type conversion:
- Conversion to an object of a specific type
- Conversion to an array of a specific type
- Conversion to a collection of a specific type
Data type conversion is related to variable substitution (aka interpolation). Before a value can be converted to a target type substitution has to be performed first, and the conversion is done on the resulting value. In order to support this, the conversion methods expect a {@link ConfigurationInterpolator} object; {@code Configuration}implementations here pass in their associated instance.
A {@code Configuration} object is associated with a concrete{@code ConversionHandler} implementation. Whenever a data type conversion isrequired it delegates to this handler. By providing a custom {@code ConversionHandler} object, the type conversion performed by theconfiguration object can be adapted.
@version $Id: ConversionHandler.java 1624601 2014-09-12 18:04:36Z oheger $
@since 2.0