001    /*
002     *  Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
003     *  or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
004     *  distributed with this work for additional information
005     *  regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
006     *  to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
007     *  "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
008     *  with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
009     *  
010     *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
011     *  
012     *  Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
013     *  software distributed under the License is distributed on an
014     *  "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
015     *  KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
016     *  specific language governing permissions and limitations
017     *  under the License. 
018     *  
019     */
020    
021    package org.apache.directory.server.dns.util;
022    
023    
024    /**
025     * An interface that allows an Enum to be converted to another type, such as an
026     * integer or long.  Useful in cases where the Java assigned ordinal just isn't
027     * reliable enough or is unable to represent the values we need.<p>
028     * 
029     * Implementers should also implement (though there is no way of requiring it)
030     * a static method for taking the conversion the other way:
031     * 
032     * <code>
033     *   public static Enum convert (K value);
034     * </code>
035     * 
036     * @param <K> 
037     * @author <a href="mailto:dev@directory.apache.org">Apache Directory Project</a>
038     * @version $Rev$, $Date$
039     */
040    public interface EnumConverter<K>
041    {
042        /**
043         * Convert the enum to another type.
044         *
045         * @return The other type.
046         */
047        K convert();
048    }