content: /*
   * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
   * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
   * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
   * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
   * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
   * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
   * 
   *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
   * 
   * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
   * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
   * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
   * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
   * limitations under the License.
   */
  
  package org.apache.commons.codec;
  
  /**
   * Defines common decoding methods for byte array decoders.
   *
   * @author Apache Software Foundation
   * @version $Id: BinaryDecoder.java 1075406 2011-02-28 16:18:26Z ggregory $
   */
  public interface BinaryDecoder extends Decoder {
  
      /**
       * Decodes a byte array and returns the results as a byte array. 
       *
       * @param source A byte array which has been encoded with the
       *      appropriate encoder
       * 
       * @return a byte array that contains decoded content
       * 
       * @throws DecoderException A decoder exception is thrown
       *          if a Decoder encounters a failure condition during
       *          the decode process.
       */
      byte[] decode(byte[] source) throws DecoderException;
  }  
  
  