hai friends,
this topic may look irrelevent to this session. hoping some experienced
java programmers may visit this forum often, i am posting this question in this session.
i am not able to get a clear idea about the difference bet. interfaces and abstract classes.using both we can achieve virtual
polymorphism in java.see in c++,we are achieving it using abstract methods/classes. code reusablity can also be achieved using both interfaces as well as abstract classes. so my question is that why java uses two terms abstract class as well as interfaces while the intention can be achieved using oneterm itself.
please think in terms of oops rather than getting into the language.
what i have understood from the java books
{
abstract classes - implementations of some methods are allowed.
interfaces - method defn. not allowed.
using interfaces we can achieve multiple inheritance
}
in both the cases (interface or abstract class), we can not create instances at all. so we are not at all going to use those partial implementation at all.ie no method calls of those partial implementation.
coming to multiple inheritance, sometimes the final derived class may have two or more copies of the same signature from its parent classes. i have enclosed the example coding.
interface A
{
int add(int a,int b);
}
interface B extends A
{
int subtract(int a,int b);
}
interface C extends A
{
int multiply(int a,int b);
}
class D implements B,C
{
public int add(int a,int b) { return a+b;}
public int subtract(int a,int b) {return a-b;}
public int multiply(int a,int b) {return a*b;}
}
class Try1
{
public static void main(
String args[])
{
D d=new D();
System.out.println(d.add(3,4));
System.out.println(d.subtract(4,5));
System.out.println(d.multiply(6,7));
}
}
so in class D, which copy of add() method we are implementing either from B or C, we don't know.
it is avoided in c++, defining the class as virtual at the time of deriving.
it is avoided in java using interfaces without the programmer's knowledge.
so my final
word is that
{
1.parial implementation or no implementation is not at all a matter.
2.multiple inheritance can be achieved by both if sun java developers has already thoght of it. so we can not accept that interfaces in java are only for multiple inheritance.
}
so my question is that
1. has java unnecessarily used two terms which confuses programmers?
2.assuming sun java developers are much more intelligent people than us, what is the exact intension behind it?
expecting your replies
with regards
balraj
