    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    package org.apache.commons.lang.text;
    018
    019    import java.text.Format;
    020    import java.util.Locale;
    021
    022    /**
    023     * Format factory.
    024     *
    025     * @author Apache Software Foundation
    026     * @since 2.4
    027     * @version $Id: FormatFactory.java 905636 2010-02-02 14:03:32Z niallp $
    028     */
    029    public interface FormatFactory {
    030
    031        /**
    032         * Create or retrieve a format instance.
    033         *
    034         * @param name The format type name
    035         * @param arguments Arguments used to create the format instance. This allows the
    036         *                  <code>FormatFactory</code> to implement the "format style"
    037         *                  concept from <code>java.text.MessageFormat</code>.
    038         * @param locale The locale, may be null
    039         * @return The format instance
    040         */
    041        Format getFormat(String name, String arguments, Locale locale);
    042
    043    }