001/*
002 * Copyright (C) 2007 The Guava Authors
003 *
004 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
005 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
006 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
007 *
008 * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
009 *
010 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
011 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
012 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
013 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
014 * limitations under the License.
015 */
016
017package com.google.common.base;
018
019import com.google.common.annotations.GwtCompatible;
020
021/**
022 * A class that can supply objects of a single type.  Semantically, this could
023 * be a factory, generator, builder, closure, or something else entirely. No
024 * guarantees are implied by this interface.
025 *
026 * @author Harry Heymann
027 * @since 2.0
028 */
029@GwtCompatible
030public interface Supplier<T> {
031  /**
032   * Retrieves an instance of the appropriate type. The returned object may or
033   * may not be a new instance, depending on the implementation.
034   *
035   * @return an instance of the appropriate type
036   */
037  T get();
038}