Mastering Java Interfaces for Reusability and Flexibility

1. Interfaces

2. Interfaces • Generally, interface describes public members of a class • Java interface allows programmer to specify method signatures for reusability • An interface cannot be instantiated • A class that implements and interface must implement the methods defined in the interface • Example – sortable

3. Syntax public interface interface_name { //method signature public return_type name(params); } public class class_name implements interface_name { //method implementation public return_type name(params) { } }

4. Casting public class Cow implements Animal { public void speak() { System.out.println(“Moo”); } public void milk() { ... } } public interface Animal { public void speak(); } public class Bird implements Animal { public void speak() { System.out.println(“Squawk”); } public void fly() { ... } }

5. Casting Animal[] animals = new Animal[3]; animals[0] = new Cow(); animals[1] = new Bird(); animals[2] = new Cow(); //milk all cows for(int i = 0; i < animals.length; i++) { if(animals[i] instanceof Cow) { Cow c = (Cow)animals[i]; c.milk(); } }

6. Implementing Multiple Interfaces public class class_name implements interface1, interface2, interface3 { //implementation of ALL methods from interfaces 1, 2, and 3 } Example: interface Student with method listClasses interface ComputerScientist with method writeProgram class CSStudent implements Student and ComptuerScientist must implement methods listClasses and writeProgram

7. Exercises • Implement (and test!) an abstract class Employee and two classes that implement Employee. • You can choose the type of employees you want to implement • Change Sortable and SortedList such that you can keep a sorted list of your employees • You will need to modify Employee to implement your modified Sortable interface