001    /*
002     * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
003     * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
004     * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
005     * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
006     * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
007     * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
008     * 
009     *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
010     * 
011     * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
012     * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
013     * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
014     * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
015     * limitations under the License.
016     */
017    
018    package org.apache.commons.codec;
019    
020    /**
021     * Defines common decoding methods for byte array decoders.
022     *
023     * @author Apache Software Foundation
024     * @version $Id: BinaryDecoder.java 651573 2008-04-25 11:11:21Z niallp $
025     */
026    public interface BinaryDecoder extends Decoder {
027    
028        /**
029         * Decodes a byte array and returns the results as a byte array. 
030         *
031         * @param pArray A byte array which has been encoded with the
032         *      appropriate encoder
033         * 
034         * @return a byte array that contains decoded content
035         * 
036         * @throws DecoderException A decoder exception is thrown
037         *          if a Decoder encounters a failure condition during
038         *          the decode process.
039         */
040        byte[] decode(byte[] pArray) throws DecoderException;
041    }  
042