/*******************************************************************************
 * Copyright (c) 2008 - 2012 Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.
 *
 * This program and the accompanying materials are made available under the
 * terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0 and Eclipse Distribution License v. 1.0
 * which accompanies this distribution.
 * The Eclipse Public License is available at http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html
 * and the Eclipse Distribution License is available at
 * http://www.eclipse.org/org/documents/edl-v10.php.
 *
 * Contributors:
 *     Linda DeMichiel - Java Persistence 2.1
 *     Linda DeMichiel - Java Persistence 2.0
 *
 ******************************************************************************/
package javax.persistence;

/**
 * A class that implements this interface can be used to convert 
 * entity attribute state into database column representation 
 * and back again.
 * Note that the X and Y types may be the same Java type.
 *
 * @param <X>  the type of the entity attribute
 * @param <Y>  the type of the database column
 */
public interface AttributeConverter<X,Y> {

    /**
     * Converts the value stored in the entity attribute into the 
     * data representation to be stored in the database.
     *
     * @param attribute  the entity attribute value to be converted
     * @return  the converted data to be stored in the database 
     *          column
     */
    public Y convertToDatabaseColumn (X attribute);

    /**
     * Converts the data stored in the database column into the 
     * value to be stored in the entity attribute.
     * Note that it is the responsibility of the converter writer to
     * specify the correct <code>dbData</code> type for the corresponding 
     * column for use by the JDBC driver: i.e., persistence providers are 
     * not expected to do such type conversion.
     *
     * @param dbData  the data from the database column to be 
     *                converted
     * @return  the converted value to be stored in the entity 
     *          attribute
     */
    public X convertToEntityAttribute (Y dbData);
}