Chapter 1 Introduction to

Computers, Programs, and Java

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Chapter 14 Abstract Classes and Interfaces

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 Motivations
You learned how to write simple programs to
display GUI components. Can you write the code
to respond to user actions such as clicking a
button?

HandleEvent Run

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 Objectives
 To design and use abstract classes (§14.2).
 To process a calendar using the Calendar and GregorianCalendar classes (§14.3).
 To specify common behavior for objects using interfaces (§14.4).
 To define interfaces and define classes that implement interfaces (§14.4).
 To define a natural order using the Comparable interface (§14.5).
 To enable objects to listen for action events using the ActionListener interface
(§14.6).
 To make objects cloneable using the Cloneable interface (§14.7).
 To explore the similarities and differences between an abstract class and an
interface (§14.8).
 To create objects for primitive values using the wrapper classes (Byte, Short,
Integer, Long, Float, Double, Character, and Boolean) (§14.9).
 To create a generic sort method (§14.10).
 To simplify programming using automatic conversion between primitive types
and wrapper class types (§14.11).
 To use the BigInteger and BigDecimal classes for computing very large numbers
with arbitrary precisions (§14.12).
 To design the Rational class for defining the Rational type (§14.13).
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 Abstract Classes and Abstract Methods
GeometricObject Abstract class
-color: String
-filled: boolean
-dateCreated: java.util.Date
GeometricObject
The # sign indicates
protected modifier #GeometricObject()
#GeometricObject(color: string,
filled: boolean)
Circle
+getColor(): String
+setColor(color: String): void
+isFilled(): boolean
+setFilled(filled: boolean): void
+getDateCreated(): java.util.Date
Rectangle
+toString(): String
+getArea(): double
Abstract methods +getPerimeter(): double
are italicized Methods getArea and getPerimeter are overridden in
Circle and Rectangle. Superclass methods are generally
omitted in the UML diagram for subclasses.

Circle Rectangle
-radius: double -width: double
-height: double
+Circle()
+Circle(radius: double) +Rectangle()
TestGometricObject
+Circle(radius: double, color: string, +Rectangle(width: double, height: double)
filled: boolean) +Rectangle(width: double, height: double,
+getRadius(): double color: string, filled: boolean)
+setRadius(radius: double): void +getWidth(): double
+getDiameter(): double +setWidth(width: double): void
+getHeight(): double
Run
+setHeight(height: double): void

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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];

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The Abstract Calendar Class and Its
GregorianCalendar subclass
java.util.Calendar
#Calendar() Constructs a default calendar.
+get(field: int): int Returns the value of the given calendar field.
+set(field: int, value: int): void Sets the given calendar to the specified value.
+set(year: int, month: int, Sets the calendar with the specified year, month, and date. The month
dayOfMonth: int): void parameter is 0-based, that is, 0 is for January.
+getActualMaximum(field: int): int Returns the maximum value that the specified calendar field could have.
+add(field: int, amount: int): void Adds or subtracts the specified amount of time to the given calendar field.
+getTime(): java.util.Date Returns a Date object representing this calendar’s time value (million
second offset from the Unix epoch).
+setTime(date: java.util.Date): void Sets this calendar’s time with the given Date object.

java.util.GregorianCalendar
+GregorianCalendar() Constructs a GregorianCalendar for the current time.
+GregorianCalendar(year: int, Constructs a GregorianCalendar for the specified year, month, and day of
month: int, dayOfMonth: int) month.
+GregorianCalendar(year: int, Constructs a GregorianCalendar for the specified year, month, day of
month: int, dayOfMonth: int, month, hour, minute, and second. The month parameter is 0-based, that
hour:int, minute: int, second: int) is, 0 is for January.

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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.
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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.

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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.
Constant Description

YEAR The year of the calendar.

MONTH The month of the calendar with 0 for January.
DATE The day of the calendar.
HOUR The hour of the calendar (12-hour notation).
HOUR_OF_DAY The hour of the calendar (24-hour notation).
MINUTE The minute of the calendar.
SECOND The second of the calendar.
DAY_OF_WEEK The day number within the week with 1 for Sunday.
DAY_OF_MONTH Same as DATE.
DAY_OF_YEAR The day number in the year with 1 for the first
day of the year.
WEEK_OF_MONTH The week number within the month.
WEEK_OF_YEAR The week number within the year.
AM_PM Indicator for AM or PM (0 for AM and 1 for PM).
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Getting Date/Time Information from
Calendar

TestCalendar

Run

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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?

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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 behavior
for objects. For example, you can specify that the
objects are comparable, edible, cloneable using
appropriate interfaces.

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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;
method signatures;
}

Example:
public interface Edible {
/** Describe how to eat */
public abstract String howToEat();
}
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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.

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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

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 Omitting Modifiers in Interfaces
All data fields are public final static and all methods are public
abstract in an interface. For this reason, these modifiers can be
omitted, as shown below:

public interface T1 { public interface T1 {

public static final int K = 1; Equivalent int K = 1;

public abstract void p(); void p();

} }

A constant defined in an interface can be accessed using syntax

InterfaceName.CONSTANT_NAME (e.g., T1.K).

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 Example: The Comparable Interface

// This interface is defined in

// java.lang package
package java.lang;

public interface Comparable {

public int compareTo(Object o);
}

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 String and Date Classes
Many classes (e.g., String and Date) in the Java library
implement Comparable to define a natural order for the
objects. If you examine the source code of these classes,
you will see the keyword implements used in the classes,
as shown below:
public class String extends Object public class Date extends Object
implements Comparable { implements Comparable {
// class body omitted // class body omitted
} }

new String() instanceof String

new String() instanceof Comparable
new java.util.Date() instanceof java.util.Date
new java.util.Date() instanceof Comparable
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 Generic max Method
// Max.java: Find a maximum object // Max.java: Find a maximum object
public class Max { public class Max {
/** Return the maximum of two objects */ /** Return the maximum of two objects */
public static Comparable max public static Object max
(Comparable o1, Comparable o2) { (Object o1, Object o2) {
if (o1.compareTo(o2) > 0) if (((Comparable)o1).compareTo(o2) > 0)
return o1; return o1;
else else
return o2; return o2;
} }
} }

(a) (b)

String s1 = "abcdef"; Date d1 = new Date();

String s2 = "abcdee"; Date d2 = new Date();
String s3 = (String)Max.max(s1, s2); Date d3 = (Date)Max.max(d1, d2);

The return value from the max method is of the Comparable

type. So, you need to cast it to String or Date explicitly.
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Defining Classes to Implement Comparable
Notation: GeometricObject «interface»
The interface name and the - java.lang.Comparable
method names are italicized.
The dashed lines and hollow Rectangle +compareTo(o: Object): int
triangles are used to point to -
the interface.
ComparableRectangle
-

ComparableRectangle
You cannot use the max method to find the larger of two instances of Rectangle,
because Rectangle does not implement Comparable. However, you can define a
new rectangle class that implements Comparable. The instances of this new class
are comparable. Let this new class be named ComparableRectangle.

ComparableRectangle rectangle1 = new ComparableRectangle(4, 5);

ComparableRectangle rectangle2 = new ComparableRectangle(3, 6);
System.out.println(Max.max(rectangle1, rectangle2));
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The ActionListener Interfaces

HandleEvent Run

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 Handling GUI Events

Source object (e.g., button)

Listener object contains a method for
processing the event.

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animation
Trace Execution
public class HandleEvent extends JFrame {
public HandleEvent() { 1. Start from the
… main method to
OKListenerClass listener1 = new OKListenerClass(); create a window and
jbtOK.addActionListener(listener1); display it
…
}

public static void main(String[] args) {

…
}
}

class OKListenerClass implements ActionListener {

public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
System.out.println("OK button clicked");
}
}
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animation
Trace Execution
public class HandleEvent extends JFrame {
public HandleEvent() { 2. Click OK
…
OKListenerClass listener1 = new OKListenerClass();
jbtOK.addActionListener(listener1);
…
}

public static void main(String[] args) {

…
}
}

class OKListenerClass implements ActionListener {

public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
System.out.println("OK button clicked");
}
}
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animation
Trace Execution
public class HandleEvent extends JFrame {
public HandleEvent() { 3. Click OK. The
… JVM invokes the
OKListenerClass listener1 = new OKListenerClass(); listener’s
jbtOK.addActionListener(listener1); actionPerformed
… method
}

public static void main(String[] args) {

…
}
}

class OKListenerClass implements ActionListener {

public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
System.out.println("OK button clicked");
}
}
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 The Cloneable Interfaces
Marker Interface: An empty interface.
A marker interface does not contain constants or methods.
It is used to denote that a class possesses certain desirable
properties. A class that implements the Cloneable
interface is marked cloneable, and its objects can be
cloned using the clone() method defined in the Object
class.

package java.lang;
public interface Cloneable {
}
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 Examples
Many classes (e.g., Date and Calendar) in the Java library implement
Cloneable. Thus, the instances of these classes can be cloned. For
example, the following code

Calendar calendar = new GregorianCalendar(2003, 2, 1);

Calendar calendarCopy = (Calendar)calendar.clone();
System.out.println("calendar == calendarCopy is " +
(calendar == calendarCopy));
System.out.println("calendar.equals(calendarCopy) is " +
calendar.equals(calendarCopy));
 
displays
calendar == calendarCopy is false
calendar.equals(calendarCopy) is true  
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 Implementing Cloneable Interface
To define a custom class that implements the Cloneable
interface, the class must override the clone() method in
the Object class. The following code defines a class
named House that implements Cloneable and
Comparable.

House

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 Shallow vs. Deep Copy
House house1 = new House(1, 1750.50);
House house2 = (House)house1.clone();

house1: House Memory

id = 1 1
area = 1750.50 1750.50
whenBuilt reference whenBuilt: Date

house2 = house1.clone() date object contents

house1: House Memory

id = 1 1
area = 1750.50 1750.50
whenBuilt reference

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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.

Variables Constructors Methods

Abstract No restrictions Constructors are invoked by subclasses No restrictions.

class through constructor chaining. An abstract
class cannot be instantiated using the new
operator.

Interface All variables No constructors. An interface cannot be All methods must be

must be public instantiated using the new operator. public abstract
static final instance methods

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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.

Interface1_2 Interface2_2

Interface1_1 Interface1 Interface2_1

Object Class1 Class2

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.
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 Caution: conflict interfaces
In rare occasions, a class may implement two interfaces
with conflict information (e.g., two same constants with
different values or two methods with same signature but
different return type). This type of errors will be detected
by the compiler.

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 Whether to use an interface or a class?
Abstract classes and interfaces can both be used to model common
features. How do you decide whether to use an interface or a class?
In general, a strong is-a relationship that clearly describes a parent-
child relationship should be modeled using classes. For example, a
staff member is a person. So their relationship should be modeled
using class inheritance. A weak is-a relationship, also known as an
is-kind-of relationship, indicates that an object possesses a certain
property. A weak is-a relationship can be modeled using interfaces.
For example, all strings are comparable, so the String class
implements the Comparable interface. You can also use interfaces
to circumvent single inheritance restriction if multiple inheritance is
desired. In the case of multiple inheritance, you have to design one
as a superclass, and others as interface. See Chapter 10, “Object-
Oriented Modeling,” for more discussions.

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 Wrapper Classes
 Boolean  Integer NOTE: (1) The wrapper classes do
not have no-arg constructors. (2)
 Character  Long The instances of all wrapper
classes are immutable, i.e., their
 Short  Float internal values cannot be changed
once the objects are created.
 Byte  Double

java.lang.Comparable java.lang.Object
- -

Number Character Boolean

- - -

Double Float Long Integer Short Byte

- - - - - -
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The toString, equals, and hashCode
Methods
Each wrapper class overrides the toString,
equals, and hashCode methods defined in the
Object class. Since all the numeric wrapper
classes and the Character class implement the
Comparable interface, the compareTo
method is implemented in these classes.

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 The Number Class
Each numeric wrapper class extends the
abstract Number class, which contains the
methods doubleValue, floatValue, intValue,
longValue, shortValue, and byteValue. These
methods “convert” objects into primitive type
values. The methods doubleValue, floatValue,
intValue, longValue are abstract. The methods
byteValue and shortValue are not abstract,
which simply return (byte)intValue() and
(short)intValue(), respectively.
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The Integer and Double Classes
java.lang.Number java.lang.Integer
-value: int
+byteValue(): byte +MAX_VALUE: int
+shortValue(): short +MIN_VALUE: int
+intValue(): int
+longVlaue(): long +Integer(value: int)
+floatValue(): float +Integer(s: String)
+doubleValue():double +valueOf(s: String): Integer
+valueOf(s: String, radix: int): Integer
+parseInt(s: String): int
java.lang.Comparable +parseInt(s: String, radix: int): int

+compareTo(o: Object): int

java.lang.Double
-value: double
+MAX_VALUE: double
+MIN_VALUE: double

+Double(value: double)
+Double(s: String)
+valueOf(s: String): Double
+valueOf(s: String, radix: int): Double
+parseDouble(s: String): double
+parseDouble (s: String, radix: int): double

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 The Integer Class
and the Double Class
 Constructors

 Class Constants MAX_VALUE, MIN_VALUE

 Conversion Methods

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Numeric Wrapper Class Constructors
You can construct a wrapper object either from a
primitive data type value or from a string
representing the numeric value. The constructors
for Integer and Double are:
public Integer(int value)
public Integer(String s)
public Double(double value)
public Double(String s)

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Numeric Wrapper Class Constants
Each numerical wrapper class has the constants
MAX_VALUE and MIN_VALUE. MAX_VALUE
represents the maximum value of the corresponding
primitive data type. For Byte, Short, Integer, and Long,
MIN_VALUE represents the minimum byte, short, int,
and long values. For Float and Double, MIN_VALUE
represents the minimum positive float and double values.
The following statements display the maximum integer
(2,147,483,647), the minimum positive float (1.4E-45),
and the maximum double floating-point number
(1.79769313486231570e+308d).
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 Conversion Methods
Each numeric wrapper class implements the
abstract methods doubleValue, floatValue,
intValue, longValue, and shortValue, which
are defined in the Number class. These
methods “convert” objects into primitive
type values.

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 The Static valueOf Methods
The numeric wrapper classes have a useful
class method, valueOf(String s). This method
creates a new object initialized to the value
represented by the specified string. For
example:
 
Double doubleObject = Double.valueOf("12.4");
Integer integerObject = Integer.valueOf("12");

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The Methods for Parsing Strings into
Numbers
You have used the parseInt method in the
Integer class to parse a numeric string into an
int value and the parseDouble method in the
Double class to parse a numeric string into a
double value. Each numeric wrapper class
has two overloaded parsing methods to parse
a numeric string into an appropriate numeric
value.
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 Sorting an Array of Objects
Objective: The example presents a generic
method for sorting an array of objects. The
objects are instances of the Comparable interface
and they are compared using the compareTo
method.

GenericSort Run

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 TIP
Java provides a static sort method for sorting an
array of Object in the java.util.Arrays class. So
you can use the following code to sort arrays in
this example:
java.util.Arrays.sort(intArray);
java.util.Arrays.sort(doubleArray);
java.util.Arrays.sort(charArray);
java.util.Arrays.sort(stringArray);

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 NOTE
Arrays are objects. An array is an instance of the
Object class. Furthermore, if A is a subclass of B,
every instance of A[] is an instance of B[].
Therefore, the following statements are all true:

new int[10] instanceof Object

new GregorianCalendar[10] instanceof Calendar[];
new Calendar[10] instanceof Object[]
new Calendar[10] instanceof Object
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 CAUTION
Although an int value can be assigned to a double
type variable, int[] and double[] are two
incompatible types. Therefore, you cannot assign
an int[] array to a variable of double[] or Object[]
type.

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 Automatic Conversion Between Primitive
Types and Wrapper Class Types

JDK 1.5 allows primitive type and wrapper classes to be converted automatically. For
example, the following statement in (a) can be simplified as in (b):

Equivalent
Integer[] intArray = {new Integer(2), Integer[] intArray = {2, 4, 3};
new Integer(4), new Integer(3)};

(a) New JDK 1.5 boxing (b)

Integer[] intArray = {1, 2, 3};

System.out.println(intArray[0] + intArray[1] + intArray[2]);

Unboxing

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 BigInteger and BigDecimal
If you need to compute with very large integers or
high precision floating-point values, you can use
the BigInteger and BigDecimal classes in the
java.math package. Both are immutable. Both
extend the Number class and implement the
Comparable interface.

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hts reserved. 0132130807 55
 BigInteger and BigDecimal
BigInteger a = new BigInteger("9223372036854775807");
BigInteger b = new BigInteger("2");
BigInteger c = a.multiply(b); // 9223372036854775807 * 2
System.out.println(c);

LargeFactorial Run

BigDecimal a = new BigDecimal(1.0);

BigDecimal b = new BigDecimal(3);
BigDecimal c = a.divide(b, 20, BigDecimal.ROUND_UP);
System.out.println(c);
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hts reserved. 0132130807 56
 The Rational Class
1
java.lang.Number Rational
+byteValue(): byte -numerator: long
+shortValue(): short -denominator: long
+intValue(): int
+longVlaue(): long +Rational()
+floatValue(): float +Rational(numerator: long, denominator: long)
+doubleValue():double +getNumerator(): long
+getDenominator(): long
+add(secondRational: Rational): Rational
+multiply(secondRational: Rational): Rational
+subtract(secondRational: Rational): Rational
java.lang.Comparable +divide(secondRational: Rational): Rational
+toString(): String
compareTo(Object): int -gcd(n: long, d: long): long

1 Add, Subtract, Multiply, Divide

Rational TestRationalClass Run

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hts reserved. 0132130807 57