/*
 * Copyright (c) 1999, 2004, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
 * ORACLE PROPRIETARY/CONFIDENTIAL. Use is subject to license terms.
 *
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package javax.naming;

/**
 * This interface is used for parsing names from a hierarchical
 * namespace. The NameParser contains knowledge of the syntactic
 * information (like left-to-right orientation, name separator, etc.)
 * needed to parse names.
 *
 * The equals() method, when used to compare two NameParsers, returns
 * true if and only if they serve the same namespace.
 *
 * @author Rosanna Lee
 * @author Scott Seligman
 *
 * @see CompoundName
 * @see Name
 * @since 1.3
 */

public interface NameParser {
 /**
 * Parses a name into its components.
 *
 * @param name The non-null string name to parse.
 * @return A non-null parsed form of the name using the naming convention
 * of this parser.
 * @exception InvalidNameException If name does not conform to
 * syntax defined for the namespace.
 * @exception NamingException If a naming exception was encountered.
 */
 Name parse(String name) throws NamingException;
}