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To copy or map typed DataElements, use the convertTo and convertFrom
methods provided by the PropertyDescription interface. These methods convert
between data elements of any object and a specific business object. The advantage
of using these methods is that they perform the conversion directly without
requiring any intermediate object instantiation that the formatToWriter and
unformatFromReader methods require. In addition, there is a formatter, DataMapperConverterFormat,
that uses these methods. See the Formatters documentation for information
on this class.
To validate strings against a validator whose owning type
is not a String, use the validateObject(Object) method. With this method,
the descriptor does not have to first convert the String into the proper type
and then call to the validator to actually validate the object. This method
directly uses the typed data validator to validate the passed object. In this
case, because the passed object is a String, the validator must be able to
validate strings.