/*
 *  Copyright 2001-2005 Stephen Colebourne
 *
 *  Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 *  you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 *  You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 *  Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 *  distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 *  WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 *  See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 *  limitations under the License.
 */
package org.joda.time.format;

Internal interface for parsing textual representations of datetimes.
 Application users will rarely use this class directly. Instead, you will use one of the factory classes to create a DateTimeFormatter. 

The factory classes are:
 - DateTimeFormatterBuilder
 - DateTimeFormat
 - ISODateTimeFormat

Author:
Brian S O'Neill
See Also:
DateTimeFormatter
DateTimeFormatterBuilder
DateTimeFormat
Since:
1.0/**
 * Internal interface for parsing textual representations of datetimes.
 * <p>
 * Application users will rarely use this class directly. Instead, you
 * will use one of the factory classes to create a {@link DateTimeFormatter}.
 * <p>
 * The factory classes are:<br />
 * - {@link DateTimeFormatterBuilder}<br />
 * - {@link DateTimeFormat}<br />
 * - {@link ISODateTimeFormat}<br />
 *
 * @author Brian S O'Neill
 * @see DateTimeFormatter
 * @see DateTimeFormatterBuilder
 * @see DateTimeFormat
 * @since 1.0
 */
public interface DateTimeParser {

    
Returns the expected maximum number of characters consumed.
The actual amount should rarely exceed this estimate.
Returns:
the estimated length/**
     * Returns the expected maximum number of characters consumed.
     * The actual amount should rarely exceed this estimate.
     * 
     * @return the estimated length
     */
    int estimateParsedLength();

    
Parse an element from the given text, saving any fields into the given
DateTimeParserBucket. If the parse succeeds, the return value is the new
text position. Note that the parse may succeed without fully reading the
text.

If it fails, the return value is negative. To determine the position
where the parse failed, apply the one's complement operator (~) on the
return value.
Params:
bucket –  field are saved into this, not null
text –  the text to parse, not null
position –  position to start parsing from
Throws:
IllegalArgumentException – if any field is out of range
Returns:
new position, negative value means parse failed -
 apply complement operator (~) to get position of failure/**
     * Parse an element from the given text, saving any fields into the given
     * DateTimeParserBucket. If the parse succeeds, the return value is the new
     * text position. Note that the parse may succeed without fully reading the
     * text.
     * <p>
     * If it fails, the return value is negative. To determine the position
     * where the parse failed, apply the one's complement operator (~) on the
     * return value.
     *
     * @param bucket  field are saved into this, not null
     * @param text  the text to parse, not null
     * @param position  position to start parsing from
     * @return new position, negative value means parse failed -
     *  apply complement operator (~) to get position of failure
     * @throws IllegalArgumentException if any field is out of range
     */
    int parseInto(DateTimeParserBucket bucket, String text, int position);

}