What is an interface and how will you go about implementing an interface?

Answer 1

an Interface is nothing but a contract as to how a class should behave. It just declares the behavior as empty methods and the implementing class actually writes the code that will determine the behavior.

When you implement an interface, you're agreeing to adhere to the contract defined in the interface. That means you're agreeing to provide legal implementations for every method defined in the interface, and that anyone who knows what the interface methods look like can rest assured that they can invoke those methods on an instance of your implementing class. (Thy need not bother much about how you have implemented it. All they bother about is whether a method of the name mentioned in the interface is available or not)

Now, you might stop me and ask, what if I implement an interface and opt not to write code for a method that I am supposed to? The answer is simple. The compiler wouldn't let you do that. You cannot successfully implement an interface without providing method implementation for all the methods declared inside the interface. This is how the java system ensures that when someone knows a certain method name in an interface and has an instance of a class that implements it, can actually call that method without fear that the method isn't implemented inside the class.

Assuming an interface, Convertible, with two methods: openHood(), and setOpenHoodFactor(), the following class will compile:

public class Ball implements Convertible { // Keyword 'implements'

public void openHood() { }

public void setOpenHoodFactor(int bf) { }

}

Ok, I know what you are thinking now. "This has got to be the worst implementation class that you have seen". Though it compiles and runs as well, it is actually doing nothing… the interface contract guarantees that the class implementing it will have a method of a particular name but it never guaranteed a good implementation. In other words, the compiler does not bother whether you have code inside your method or not. All it cares is if you have methods of the matching names as in the interface. That's all…

Implementation classes must adhere to the same rules for method implementation as a class extending an abstract class. In order to be a legal implementation class, a nonabstract implementation class must do the following:

• Provide concrete (nonabstract) implementations for all methods from the declared interface.

• Follow all the rules for legal overrides.

• Declare no checked exceptions on implementation methods other than those declared by the interface method, or subclasses of those declared by the interface method.

• Maintain the signature of the interface method, and maintain the same return type (or a subtype).

• It does not have to declare the exceptions declared in the interface method declaration.