DateProvider

All Known Subinterfaces:

DateTimeProvider

All Known Implementing Classes:

CopticDate, HistoricDate, LocalDate, LocalDateTime, OffsetDate, OffsetDateTime, ZonedDateTime
```
public interface DateProvider
```
Provides access to a date in the ISO-8601 calendar system.
DateProvider is a simple interface that provides uniform access to any object that can provide access to a date in the ISO-8601 calendar system.
The implementation of DateProvider may be mutable. For example, GregorianCalendar is a mutable implementation of this interface. The result of toLocalDate(), however, is immutable.
When implementing an API that accepts a DateProvider as a parameter, it is important to convert the input to a LocalDate once and once only. It is recommended that this is done at the top of the method before other processing. This is necessary to handle the case where the implementation of the provider is mutable and changes in value between two calls to toLocalDate().
The recommended way to convert a DateProvider to a LocalDate is using LocalDate.of(DateProvider) as this method provides additional null checking.
The implementation of DateProvider may provide more information than just a local date. For example, OffsetDate, implements this interface and also provides a zone offset.
DateProvider makes no guarantees about the thread-safety or immutability of implementations.

- Method Summary
  
  All Methods Instance Methods Abstract Methods
  Modifier and Type Method Description
  
  LocalDate toLocalDate()
  Returns an instance of LocalDate initialized from the state of this object.

- Method Detail
  - toLocalDate
```
LocalDate toLocalDate()
```
    Returns an instance of LocalDate initialized from the state of this object.
    This method will take the date represented by this object and return a LocalDate constructed using the year, month and day. If this object is already a LocalDate then it is simply returned.
    The result of this method is a LocalDate which represents a date in the ISO calendar system. Implementors may perform conversion when implementing this method to convert from alternate calendar systems.
    
    Returns:
    
    the LocalDate equivalent to this object, never null
    
    Throws:
    
    CalendricalException - if the date cannot be converted