1 /*
2 * Copyright 2007 Kasper B. Graversen
3 *
4 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
5 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
6 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
7 *
8 * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
9 *
10 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
11 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
12 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
13 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
14 * limitations under the License.
15 */
16 package org.supercsv.encoder;
17
18 import org.supercsv.prefs.CsvPreference;
19 import org.supercsv.util.CsvContext;
20
21 /**
22 * Defines the interface for all CSV encoders.
23 *
24 * @author James Bassett
25 * @since 2.1.0
26 */
27 public interface CsvEncoder {
28
29 /**
30 * Encodes a String to be written to a CSV file. The encoder should honour all CSV preferences including updating
31 * the current lineNumber (in the CSV context - it will be updated in the calling CsvWriter after encoding has
32 * completed) as line terminators are encountered in the String to be escaped (converting all 3 variations of line
33 * terminators to the end of line symbols specified in the preferences). The CsvContext can also be used to encode
34 * based on the current context (e.g. you may want to always put quotes around a particular column).
35 *
36 * @param input
37 * the String to be encoded
38 * @param context
39 * the context
40 * @param preference
41 * the CSV preferences
42 * @return the encoded CSV
43 */
44 String encode(String input, CsvContext context, CsvPreference preference);
45
46 }