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 *      http://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 */
017package org.apache.commons.collections4;
018
019import java.util.function.Supplier;
020
021/**
022 * Defines a functor interface implemented by classes that create objects.
023 * <p>
024 * A {@code Factory} creates an object without using an input parameter.
025 * 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
029 * {@link FactoryUtils}. These include factories that return a constant,
030 * a copy of a prototype or a new instance.
031 * </p>
032 *
033 * @param <T> the type of results supplied by this supplier.
034 * @since 2.1
035 * @deprecated Use {@link Supplier}.
036 */
037@Deprecated
038public interface Factory<T> extends Supplier<T> {
039
040    /**
041     * Create a new object.
042     *
043     * @return a new object
044     * @throws FunctorException (runtime) if the factory cannot create an object
045     */
046    T create();
047
048    @Override
049    default T get() {
050        return create();
051    }
052
053}