Lecture 6: Abstract Classes and Interfaces

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 Motivations
➢ You have learned how to write simple programs
to create and display GUI components. Can you
write the code to respond to user actions, such as
clicking a button to perform an action?
➢ In order to write such code, you have to know
about interfaces. An interface is for defining
common behavior for classes (including unrelated
classes). Before discussing interfaces, we
introduce a closely related subject: abstract
classes.
Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, (c) 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 Objectives

➢ To design and use abstract classes.

➢ To process a calendar using the Calendar and GregorianCalendar.
➢ To specify common behavior for objects using interfaces.
➢ To define interfaces and define classes that implement interfaces.
➢ To explore the similarities and differences among concrete classes,
abstract classes, and interfaces.

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, (c) 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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Abstract Classes and Abstract Methods
GeometricObject

Circle

Rectangle

TestGeometricObject
Run

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, (c) 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 abstract method in abstract class
An abstract method cannot be contained in a
nonabstract class. If a subclass of an abstract
superclass does not implement all the abstract
methods, the subclass must be defined abstract. In
other words, in a nonabstract subclass extended from
an abstract class, all the abstract methods must be
implemented, even if they are not used in the
subclass.

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, (c) 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 object cannot be created from
abstract class
An abstract class cannot be instantiated using
the new operator, but you can still define its
constructors, which are invoked in the
constructors of its subclasses. For instance,
the constructors of GeometricObject are
invoked in the Circle class and the Rectangle
class.

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, (c) 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 abstract class without abstract
method
A class that contains abstract methods must
be abstract. However, it is possible to define
an abstract class that contains no abstract
methods. In this case, you cannot create
instances of the class using the new operator.
This class is used as a base class for defining
a new subclass.

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, (c) 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 superclass of abstract class may be
concrete
A subclass can be abstract even if its
superclass is concrete. For example, the
Object class is concrete, but its subclasses,
such as GeometricObject, may be abstract.

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, (c) 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 concrete method overridden to be
abstract
A subclass can override a method from its
superclass to define it abstract. This is rare,
but useful when the implementation of the
method in the superclass becomes invalid in
the subclass. In this case, the subclass must be
defined abstract.

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, (c) 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 abstract class as type
You cannot create an instance from an
abstract class using the new operator, but an
abstract class can be used as a data type.
Therefore, the following statement, which
creates an array whose elements are of
GeometricObject type, is correct.
GeometricObject[] geo = new GeometricObject[10];

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, (c) 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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The Abstract Calendar Class and Its
GregorianCalendar subclass

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, (c) 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 The Abstract Calendar Class and Its
GregorianCalendar subclass
An instance of java.util.Date represents a specific
instant in time with millisecond precision.
java.util.Calendar is an abstract base class for
extracting detailed information such as year, month,
date, hour, minute and second from a Date object.
Subclasses of Calendar can implement specific
calendar systems such as Gregorian calendar, Lunar
Calendar and Jewish calendar. Currently,
java.util.GregorianCalendar for the Gregorian
calendar is supported in the Java API.
Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, (c) 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 The GregorianCalendar Class
You can use new GregorianCalendar() to construct
a default GregorianCalendar with the current time
and use new GregorianCalendar(year, month, date)
to construct a GregorianCalendar with the specified
year, month, and date. The month parameter is 0-
based, i.e., 0 is for January.

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, (c) 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 The get Method in Calendar Class
The get(int field) method defined in the Calendar class is useful to
extract the date and time information from a Calendar object. The
fields are defined as constants, as shown in the following.

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, (c) 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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Getting Date/Time Information from
Calendar

TestCalendar Run

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, (c) 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 Interfaces
What is an interface?
Why is an interface useful?
How do you define an interface?
How do you use an interface?

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, (c) 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 What is an interface?
Why is an interface useful?
An interface is a classlike construct that contains
only constants and abstract methods. In many
ways, an interface is similar to an abstract class,
but the intent of an interface is to specify common
behavior for objects. For example, you can specify
that the objects are comparable, edible, cloneable
using appropriate interfaces.

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, (c) 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 Define an Interface
To distinguish an interface from a class, Java uses the
following syntax to define an interface:
public interface InterfaceName {
constant declarations;
abstract method signatures;
}

Example:
public interface Edible {
/** Describe how to eat */
public abstract String howToEat();
}
Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, (c) 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 Interface is a Special Class
An interface is treated like a special class in Java.
Each interface is compiled into a separate bytecode
file, just like a regular class. Like an abstract class,
you cannot create an instance from an interface
using the new operator, but in most cases you can
use an interface more or less the same way you use
an abstract class. For example, you can use an
interface as a data type for a variable, as the result
of casting, and so on.

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, (c) 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All
rights reserved.
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 Example
You can now use the Edible interface to specify whether an
object is edible. This is accomplished by letting the class for
the object implement this interface using the implements
keyword. For example, the classes Chicken and Fruit
implement the Edible interface (See TestEdible).
Edible TestEdible Run

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, (c) 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 Interfaces vs. Abstract Classes
In an interface, the data must be constants; an abstract class can
have all types of data.
Each method in an interface has only a signature without
implementation; an abstract class can have concrete methods.

Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, (c) 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All
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 Interfaces vs. Abstract Classes, cont.
All classes share a single root, the Object class, but there is no single root for
interfaces. Like a class, an interface also defines a type. A variable of an interface
type can reference any instance of the class that implements the interface. If a class
extends an interface, this interface plays the same role as a superclass. You can use
an interface as a data type and cast a variable of an interface type to its subclass,
and vice versa.

Suppose that c is an instance of Class2. c is also an instance of Object, Class1,

Interface1, Interface1_1, Interface1_2, Interface2_1, and Interface2_2.
Liang, Introduction to Java Programming, Tenth Edition, (c) 2015 Pearson Education, Inc. All
rights reserved.
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