/*

 * Copyright (c) 2005, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

 * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.

 *

 * This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it

 * under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as

 * published by the Free Software Foundation.  Oracle designates this

 * particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided

 * by Oracle in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code.

 *

 * This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT

 * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or

 * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License

 * version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that

 * accompanied this code).

 *

 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version

 * 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,

 * Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.

 *

 * Please contact Oracle, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood Shores, CA 94065 USA

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 */

package java.text.spi;

import java.text.Collator;

import java.util.Locale;

import java.util.spi.LocaleServiceProvider;

/**

 * An abstract class for service providers that

 * provide concrete implementations of the

 * {@link java.text.Collator Collator} class.

 *

 * @since        1.6

 */

public abstract class CollatorProvider extends LocaleServiceProvider {

    /**

     * Sole constructor.  (For invocation by subclass constructors, typically

     * implicit.)

     */

    protected CollatorProvider() {

    }

    /**

     * Returns a new <code>Collator</code> instance for the specified locale.

     * @param locale the desired locale.

     * @return the <code>Collator</code> for the desired locale.

     * @exception NullPointerException if

     * <code>locale</code> is null

     * @exception IllegalArgumentException if <code>locale</code> isn't

     *     one of the locales returned from

     *     {@link java.util.spi.LocaleServiceProvider#getAvailableLocales()

     *     getAvailableLocales()}.

     * @see java.text.Collator#getInstance(java.util.Locale)

     */

    public abstract Collator getInstance(Locale locale);

}