Java Interfaces
Java Interfaces
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Along with abstract methods, an interface may also contain constants, default methods, static
methods, and nested types. Method bodies exist only for default methods and static methods.
Writing an interface is similar to writing a class. But a class describes the attributes and behaviors
of an object. And an interface contains behaviors that a class implements.
Unless the class that implements the interface is abstract, all the methods of the interface need to be
defined in the class.
An interface is written in a file with a .java extension, with the name of the interface
matching the name of the file.
Interfaces appear in packages, and their corresponding bytecode file must be in a directory
structure that matches the package name.
An interface cannot contain instance fields. The only fields that can appear in an interface
must be declared both static and final.
Declaring Interfaces
The interface keyword is used to declare an interface. Here is a simple example to declare an
interface −
Example
An interface is implicitly abstract. You do not need to use the abstract keyword while
declaring an interface.
Each method in an interface is also implicitly abstract, so the abstract keyword is not needed.
Example
Implementing Interfaces
When a class implements an interface, you can think of the class as signing a contract, agreeing to
perform the specific behaviors of the interface. If a class does not perform all the behaviors of the
interface, the class must declare itself as abstract.
A class uses the implements keyword to implement an interface. The implements keyword appears
in the class declaration following the extends portion of the declaration.
Example
Output
Mammal eats
Mammal travels
When overriding methods defined in interfaces, there are several rules to be followed −
Checked exceptions should not be declared on implementation methods other than the ones
declared by the interface method or subclasses of those declared by the interface method.
The signature of the interface method and the same return type or subtype should be
maintained when overriding the methods.
An implementation class itself can be abstract and if so, interface methods need not be
implemented.
A class can extend only one class, but implement many interfaces.
An interface can extend another interface, in a similar way as a class can extend another
class.
Extending Interfaces
An interface can extend another interface in the same way that a class can extend another class. The
extends keyword is used to extend an interface, and the child interface inherits the methods of the
parent interface.
Example
// Filename: Sports.java
public interface Sports {
public void setHomeTeam(String name);
public void setVisitingTeam(String name);
}
// Filename: Football.java
public interface Football extends Sports {
public void homeTeamScored(int points);
public void visitingTeamScored(int points);
public void endOfQuarter(int quarter);
}
// Filename: Hockey.java
public interface Hockey extends Sports {
public void homeGoalScored();
public void visitingGoalScored();
public void endOfPeriod(int period);
public void overtimePeriod(int ot);
}
The Hockey interface has four methods, but it inherits two from Sports; thus, a class that
implements Hockey needs to implement all six methods. Similarly, a class that implements Football
needs to define the three methods from Football and the two methods from Sports.
The extends keyword is used once, and the parent interfaces are declared in a comma-separated list.
For example, if the Hockey interface extended both Sports and Event, it would be declared as −
Example
Tagging Interfaces
The most common use of extending interfaces occurs when the parent interface does not contain
any methods. For example, the MouseListener interface in the java.awt.event package extended
java.util.EventListener, which is defined as −
Example
package java.util;
public interface EventListener
{}
An interface with no methods in it is referred to as a tagging interface. There are two basic design
purposes of tagging interfaces −
Creates a common parent − As with the EventListener interface, which is extended by dozens of
other interfaces in the Java API, you can use a tagging interface to create a common parent among
a group of interfaces. For example, when an interface extends EventListener, the JVM knows that
this particular interface is going to be used in an event delegation scenario.
Adds a data type to a class − This situation is where the term, tagging comes from. A class that
implements a tagging interface does not need to define any methods
sincetheinterf acedoesnothaveany , but the class becomes an interface type through
polymorphism.