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25
26/**
27 * Defines charsets, decoders, and encoders, for translating between
28 * bytes and Unicode characters.
29 *
30 * <table class="striped" style="margin-left:2em; text-align:left">
31 *     <caption style="display:none">Summary of charsets, decoders, and encoders in this package</caption>
32 *  <thead>
33 *  <tr><th scope="col">Class name</th>
34 *      <th scope="col">Description
35 *  </thead>
36 *  <tbody>
37 *   <tr><th scope="row">{@link java.nio.charset.Charset}</th>
38 *       <td>A named mapping between characters and bytes</td></tr>
39 *   <tr><th scope="row">{@link java.nio.charset.CharsetDecoder}</th>
40 *       <td>Decodes bytes into characters</td></tr>
41 *   <tr><th scope="row">{@link java.nio.charset.CharsetEncoder}</th>
42 *       <td>Encodes characters into bytes</td></tr>
43 *   <tr><th scope="row">{@link java.nio.charset.CoderResult}</th>
44 *       <td>Describes coder results</td></tr>
45 *   <tr><th scope="row">{@link java.nio.charset.CodingErrorAction}</th>
46 *       <td>Describes actions to take when coding errors are detected</td></tr>
47 * </tbody>
48 * </table>
49 *
50 * <p> A <i>charset</i> is named mapping between sequences of
51 * sixteen-bit Unicode characters and sequences of bytes, in the sense
52 * defined in <a
53 * href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2278.txt"><i>RFC&nbsp;2278</i></a>.
54 * A <i>decoder</i> is an engine which transforms bytes in a specific
55 * charset into characters, and an <i>encoder</i> is an engine which
56 * transforms characters into bytes.  Encoders and decoders operate on
57 * byte and character buffers.  They are collectively referred to as
58 * <i>coders</i>.
59 *
60 * <p> The {@link java.nio.charset.Charset} class defines methods for
61 * creating coders for a given charset and for retrieving the various
62 * names associated with a charset.  It also defines static methods
63 * for testing whether a particular charset is supported, for locating
64 * charset instances by name, and for constructing a map that contains
65 * every charset for which support is available in the current Java
66 * virtual machine.
67 *
68 * <p> Most users will not use these classes directly; instead they
69 * will use the existing charset-related constructors and methods in
70 * the {@link java.lang.String} class, together with the existing
71 * {@link java.io.InputStreamReader} and {@link
72 * java.io.OutputStreamWriter} classes, all of whose implementations
73 * have been reworked to make use of the charset facilities defined in
74 * this package.  A small number of changes have been made to the
75 * {@link java.io.InputStreamReader} and {@link
76 * java.io.OutputStreamWriter} classes in order to allow explicit
77 * charset objects to be specified in the construction of instances of
78 * those classes.
79 *
80 * <p> Support for new charsets can be made available via the
81 * interface defined in the {@link
82 * java.nio.charset.spi.CharsetProvider} class in the {@link
83 * java.nio.charset.spi} package.
84 *
85 * <p> Unless otherwise noted, passing a {@code null} argument to a
86 * constructor or method in any class or interface in this package
87 * will cause a {@link java.lang.NullPointerException
88 * NullPointerException} to be thrown.
89 *
90 *
91 * @since 1.4
92 * @author Mark Reinhold
93 * @author JSR-51 Expert Group
94 */
95package java.nio.charset;
96