Encoder (Apache Commons Codec 1.15 API)

All Known Subinterfaces:

BinaryEncoder, StringEncoder

All Known Implementing Classes:

AbstractCaverphone, Base16, Base32, Base64, BaseNCodec, BCodec, BeiderMorseEncoder, BinaryCodec, Caverphone, Caverphone1, Caverphone2, ColognePhonetic, DaitchMokotoffSoundex, DoubleMetaphone, Hex, MatchRatingApproachEncoder, Metaphone, Nysiis, PercentCodec, QCodec, QuotedPrintableCodec, RefinedSoundex, Soundex, URLCodec
```
public interface Encoder
```
Provides the highest level of abstraction for Encoders.
This is the sister interface of Decoder. Every implementation of Encoder provides this common generic interface which allows a user to pass a generic Object to any Encoder implementation in the codec package.

Method Summary

All Methods Instance Methods Abstract Methods
Modifier and Type	Method	Description
`java.lang.Object`	`encode(java.lang.Object source)`	Encodes an "Object" and returns the encoded content as an Object.

- Method Detail
  - encode
```
java.lang.Object encode(java.lang.Object source)
                 throws EncoderException
```
    Encodes an "Object" and returns the encoded content as an Object. The Objects here may just be byte[] or Strings depending on the implementation used.
    
    Parameters:
    
    source - An object to encode
    
    Returns:
    
    An "encoded" Object
    
    Throws:
    
    EncoderException - An encoder exception is thrown if the encoder experiences a failure condition during the encoding process.