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An interface in the Java programming language is an abstract type that is used to declare a behavior that classes must implement. They are similar to protocols.Interfaces are declared using the interface keyword, and may only contain method signature and constant declarations (variable declarations that are declared to be both static and final).
interface Used to declare an interface that only contains abstract or default methods, constant (static final) fields and static interfaces. It can later be implemented by classes that declare the interface with the implements keyword. As multiple inheritance is not allowed in Java, interfaces are used to circumvent it. An interface can be ...
static is a reserved word in many programming languages to modify a declaration. The effect of the keyword varies depending on the details of the specific programming language, most commonly used to modify the lifetime (as a static variable) and visibility (depending on linkage), or to specify a class member instead of an instance member in classes.
The process of verifying and enforcing the constraints of types—type checking—may occur at compile time (a static check) or at run-time (a dynamic check). If a language specification requires its typing rules strongly, more or less allowing only those automatic type conversions that do not lose information, one can refer to the process as strongly typed; if not, as weakly typed.
An instance of the interface is syntactically no more useful than the interface name itself (since it has no methods). Unless a developer checks any implemented interfaces when adding a constant to a class, or does so but makes a typo in the name of the added constant, the value of a constant can be silently changed. Consider Example 2 below.
A definition provides an instance. In the entire program, an object or non-inline function cannot have more than one definition; if an object or function is used, it must have exactly one definition. You can declare an object or function that is never used, in which case you don't have to provide a definition.
In the above example, the function Base<Derived>::interface(), though declared before the existence of the struct Derived is known by the compiler (i.e., before Derived is declared), is not actually instantiated by the compiler until it is actually called by some later code which occurs after the declaration of Derived (not shown in the above ...
An interface places no requirements for clients to invoke the operations of one interface in any particular order. This approach has the benefit that client code can assume that the operations of an interface are available for use whenever the client has access to the object. [9] [citation needed] Class interface example