question on interface

[syntax]

hi, i have some basic question on interface....

question1
------------
it is called that interfaces are similar to classes.

so, as classes can produce objects by usuing "new" keywords, can
interfaces do the same thing?

or in other words, does interfaces produce "object like" things
similar to classes?


question2
-----------

suppose a class is "implementating" an interface....so the class is
defining the method which is declared in the interface.

i want to know what would be the possible return types of the
following

return type = ObjectOftheClass.MethodDeclaredIntheInterface()

what would be return type? will it be a object of the class? or will
it be a "object like" thing of the interface?(if it exists!)

thanks

 

[Joona I Palaste]

hi, i have some basic question on interface....

question1

so, as classes can produce objects by usuing "new" keywords, can
interfaces do the same thing?

or in other words, does interfaces produce "object like" things
similar to classes?

Yes or no. You cannot directly instantiate interfaces with new, but
you can instantiate classes implementing them. In other words, if
you have:

public interface IFoo {}
public class Foo implements IFoo {}

then this is an error:
IFoo i = new IFoo();
but this is OK:
IFoo i = new Foo();

question2
-----------

suppose a class is "implementating" an interface....so the class is
defining the method which is declared in the interface.

i want to know what would be the possible return types of the
following

return type = ObjectOftheClass.MethodDeclaredIntheInterface()

what would be return type? will it be a object of the class? or will
it be a "object like" thing of the interface?(if it exists!)

The return type will be whatever the interface defines it to be. That
the method is implemented in the class doesn't change that. Of course,
the actual returned *object* might have another class, but the type
is the same. (If it's a primitive, it'll be the same type, period.)

--
/-- Joona Palaste ([email protected]) ------------- Finland --------\
\-- http://www.helsinki.fi/~palaste --------------------- rules! --------/
"And according to Occam's Toothbrush, we only need to optimise the most frequent
instructions."
- Teemu Kerola