/*
 * ====================================================================
 * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
 * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
 * distributed with this work for additional information
 * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
 * to you 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.
 * ====================================================================
 *
 * This software consists of voluntary contributions made by many
 * individuals on behalf of the Apache Software Foundation.  For more
 * information on the Apache Software Foundation, please see
 * <http://www.apache.org/>.
 *
 */

package org.apache.http;

/**
 * Represents an HTTP header field.
 *
 * <p>The HTTP header fields follow the same generic format as
 * that given in Section 3.1 of RFC 822. Each header field consists
 * of a name followed by a colon (":") and the field value. Field names
 * are case-insensitive. The field value MAY be preceded by any amount
 * of LWS, though a single SP is preferred.
 *
 *<pre>
 *     message-header = field-name ":" [ field-value ]
 *     field-name     = token
 *     field-value    = *( field-content | LWS )
 *     field-content  = &lt;the OCTETs making up the field-value
 *                      and consisting of either *TEXT or combinations
 *                      of token, separators, and quoted-string&gt;
 *</pre>
 *
 * @since 4.0
 */
public interface Header {

    /**
     * Get the name of the Header.
     *
     * @return the name of the Header,  never {@code null}
     */
    String getName();

    /**
     * Get the value of the Header.
     *
     * @return the value of the Header,  may be {@code null}
     */
    String getValue();

    /**
     * Parses the value.
     *
     * @return an array of {@link HeaderElement} entries, may be empty, but is never {@code null}
     * @throws ParseException in case of a parsing error
     */
    HeaderElement[] getElements() throws ParseException;

}
