1 package org.codehaus.plexus.component.configurator.expression; 2 3 /* 4 * Copyright 2001-2006 Codehaus Foundation. 5 * 6 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); 7 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. 8 * You may obtain a copy of the License at 9 * 10 * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 11 * 12 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software 13 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, 14 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. 15 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and 16 * limitations under the License. 17 */ 18 19 /** 20 * Evaluate an expression. 21 * 22 * @author <a href="mailto:brett@codehaus.org">Brett Porter</a> 23 */ 24 public interface TypeAwareExpressionEvaluator extends ExpressionEvaluator { 25 26 /** 27 * Evaluate an expression. The optional type provided to this method is a hint (not a requirement) for the evaluator 28 * to resolve the expression to a compatible value. The evaluator is not expected to perform any conversion but 29 * rather filter out incompatible values from its result. 30 * 31 * @param expression the expression 32 * @param type The expected type of expression result, may be {@code null}. 33 * @return the value of the expression 34 * @throws ExpressionEvaluationException in case of an error. 35 */ 36 Object evaluate(String expression, Class<?> type) throws ExpressionEvaluationException; 37 }