Module java.desktop
Package javax.sound.sampled

Class AudioFormat.Encoding

java.lang.Object
javax.sound.sampled.AudioFormat.Encoding
Enclosing class:
AudioFormat
public static class AudioFormat.Encoding extends Object
The Encoding class names the specific type of data representation used for an audio stream. The encoding includes aspects of the sound format other than the number of channels, sample rate, sample size, frame rate, frame size, and byte order.

One ubiquitous type of audio encoding is pulse-code modulation (PCM), which is simply a linear (proportional) representation of the sound waveform. With PCM, the number stored in each sample is proportional to the instantaneous amplitude of the sound pressure at that point in time. The numbers may be signed or unsigned integers or floats. Besides PCM, other encodings include mu-law and a-law, which are nonlinear mappings of the sound amplitude that are often used for recording speech.

You can use a predefined encoding by referring to one of the static objects created by this class, such as PCM_SIGNED or PCM_UNSIGNED. Service providers can create new encodings, such as compressed audio formats, and make these available through the AudioSystem class.

The Encoding class is static, so that all AudioFormat objects that have the same encoding will refer to the same object (rather than different instances of the same class). This allows matches to be made by checking that two format's encodings are equal.

Since:
1.3
See Also:

  • Field Details

  • Constructor Details

    • Encoding

      public Encoding(String name)
      Constructs a new encoding.
      Parameters:
      name - the name of the new type of encoding

  • Method Details

    • equals

      public final boolean equals(Object obj)
      Indicates whether the specified object is equal to this encoding, returning true if the objects are equal.
      Overrides:
      equals in class Object
      Parameters:
      obj - the reference object with which to compare
      Returns:
      true if the specified object is equal to this encoding; false otherwise
      See Also:

    • hashCode

      public final int hashCode()
      Returns a hash code value for this encoding.
      Overrides:
      hashCode in class Object
      Returns:
      a hash code value for this encoding
      See Also:

    • toString

      public final String toString()
      Returns encoding's name as the string representation of the encoding. For the predefined encodings, the name is similar to the encoding's variable (field) name. For example, PCM_SIGNED.toString() returns the name "PCM_SIGNED".
      Overrides:
      toString in class Object
      Returns:
      a string representation of the encoding