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 *      https://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
018package org.apache.commons.collections4;
019
020import java.util.function.Supplier;
021
022/**
023 * Defines a functor interface implemented by classes that create objects.
024 * <p>
025 * A {@code Factory} creates an object without using an input parameter. If an input parameter is required, then {@link Transformer} is more appropriate.
026 * </p>
027 * <p>
028 * Standard implementations of common factories are provided by {@link FactoryUtils}. These include factories that return a constant, a copy of a prototype or a
029 * new instance.
030 * </p>
031 *
032 * @param <T> The type of results supplied by this supplier.
033 * @since 2.1 This will be deprecated in 5.0 in favor of {@link Supplier}.
034 */
035//@Deprecated
036public interface Factory<T> extends Supplier<T> {
037
038    /**
039     * Create a new object.
040     *
041     * @return A new object
042     * @throws FunctorException (runtime) if the factory cannot create an object.
043     */
044    T create();
045
046    @Override
047    default T get() {
048        return create();
049    }
050}