Theme: Next, 1

[fit] Interfaces

[fit] Quack, quack!

• We have seen List, Dictionary, and Queue.
• C# has many other collections as well.
• These include SortedList, Stack, HashSet, and LinkedList.

• How can C# know how to use foreach and other methods that work for all?

The answer is: interfaces

Interfaces

An interface is a description of a set of behaviors that a type can have. The interface defines the behaviors that a type must have, and the type must implement these. Later on, we'll learn that methods implement behaviors. An interface describes a set of methods.

ALERT: This is likely an interview question.

Interface Example

Let's use a real-world example to help understand interfaces.

• We'll use the example of an Animal.

Common Behaviors

We know all Animals have certain behaviors.

• eat
• sleep
• breathe

However, all animals have different ways of doing these.

Define an Interface

We could define an "interface" that describes these generic behaviors and call this an IAnimal.

Notice the I in the name. The I indicates that this is an Interface.

We can't make an instance of an IAnimal; it wouldn't be able to do anything.

Concrete Implementations

We could create a Bear and a Cat and Human and say that they all have the behaviors of anIAnimal.

The IAnimal is a generic type, and the Bear and Cat and Human are concrete types.

Writing code that uses Interfaces

We could code our software to use an IAnimal, and we wouldn't care if our code received a Bear or a Cat or a Human.

We would be able to say that they have the behaviors of an IAnimal.

Quack!

In fact, in other languages, this is known as duck typing! This name comes from the phrase:

If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and looks like a duck, it must be a duck.

In our case, if it eats and sleeps and breathes like an IAnimal, it must be an IAnimal.

Huh, what, why?!?!?

We'll be using interfaces more than we will be creating them in our work.

• They are a compelling language feature and are the type of tool you'll use more as you grow in your programming skills.

Ok, so besides the definition, what else do I need to know?

You may have noticed when adding a using statement to the top of your code, List, and Dictionary, and Queue come from using System.Collections.Generic.

There is that Generic word again.

Ok, so besides the definition, what else do I need to know?

In a later lesson, we'll learn about a C# feature named LINQ, and we will see that List, Dictionary, and Queue all adhere to the IEnumerable interface.

And since all these types are IEnumerable LINQ will apply to each.

[.autoscale: true]

Takeway

• Different types in C# share common behaviors. An Interface allows these types to share behaviors.
• If two things share a common Interface, they work similarly, and each does the things the Interface describes.
• We'll see them a lot more than we create them.
• When we see that some type is an ISomething, the I is a convention that says, "This is an Interface".