/*
 * Copyright 2006 Google Inc.
 * 
 * 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 com.google.gwt.dev.util.msg;

/**
 * Abstract formatter used by {@link Message}.
 */
public abstract class Formatter {

  /**
   * Transforms the specified object into a string format.
   * 
   * @param toFormat the object to format; the caller is responsible for 
   * ensuring that the type of the passed-in object is the type expected 
   * by the subclass
   * 
   * @throws ClassCastException if <code>toFormat</code> is not of the type expected by the subclass
   */
  public abstract String format(Object toFormat);
}