Saturday 7 July 2012

Item 18: Prefer interfaces to abstract classes


The Java programming language provides two mechanisms for defining a type that permits multiple implementations: interfaces and abstract classes. The most obvious difference between the two mechanisms is that abstract classes are permitted to contain implementations for some methods while interfaces are not.

Existing classes can be easily retrofitted to implement a new interface. All you have to do is add the required methods if they don’t yet exist and add an implements clause to the class declaration. For example, many existing classes were retrofitted to implement the Comparable interface when it was introduced into the platform. Existing classes cannot, in general, be retrofitted to extend a new abstract class.

Interfaces are ideal for defining mixins. Loosely speaking, a mixin is a type that a class can implement in addition to its “primary type” to declare that it provides some optional behavior. For example, Comparable is a mixin interface that allows a class to declare that its instances are ordered with respect to other mutually comparable objects.

Interfaces allow the construction of nonhierarchical type frameworks. Type hierarchies are great for organizing some things, but other things don’t fall neatly into a rigid hierarchy. For example, suppose we have an interface representing a singer and another representing a songwriter:

public interface Singer {
AudioClip sing(Song s);
}

public interface Songwriter {
Song compose(boolean hit);
}

In real life, some singers are also songwriters. Because we used interfaces rather than abstract classes to define these types, it is perfectly permissible for a single class to implement both Singer and Songwriter. In fact, we can define a third interface that extends both Singer and Songwriter and adds new methods that are appropriate to the combination:

public interface SingerSongwriter extends Singer, Songwriter {
AudioClip strum();
void actSensitive();
}

You don’t always need this level of flexibility, but when you do, interfaces are a lifesaver.

Interfaces enable safe, powerful functionality enhancements via the wrapper class idiom, described in Item 16. If you use abstract classes to define types, you leave the programmer who wants to add functionality with no alternative but to use inheritance. The resulting classes are less powerful and more fragile than wrapper classes.

While interfaces are not permitted to contain method implementations, using interfaces to define types does not prevent you from providing implementation assistance to programmers. You can combine the virtues of interfaces and abstract classes by providing an abstract skeletal implementation class to go with each nontrivial interface that you export.

By convention, skeletal implementations are called AbstractInterface, where Interface is the name of the interface they implement. For example, the Collections Framework provides a skeletal implementation to go along with each main collection interface: AbstractCollection, AbstractSet, AbstractList, and AbstractMap. Arguably it would have made sense to call them SkeletalCollection,
SkeletalSet, SkeletalList, and SkeletalMap, but the Abstract convention is now firmly established.

When properly designed, skeletal implementations can make it very easy for programmers to provide their own implementations of your interfaces. For example, here’s a static factory method containing a complete, fully functional List implementation:

// Concrete implementation built atop skeletal implementation
static List<Integer> intArrayAsList(final int[] a) {
if (a == null)
throw new NullPointerException();
return new AbstractList<Integer>() {
public Integer get(int i) {
return a[i]; // Autoboxing (Item 5)
}
@Override public Integer set(int i, Integer val) {
int oldVal = a[i];
a[i] = val; // Auto-unboxing
return oldVal; // Autoboxing
}
public int size() {
return a.length;
}
};
}

When you consider all that a List implementation does for you, this example is an impressive demonstration of the power of skeletal implementations.

The beauty of skeletal implementations is that they provide the implementation assistance of abstract classes without imposing the severe constraints that abstract classes impose when they serve as type definitions.

For example, here’s a skeletal implementation of the Map.Entry interface:

// Skeletal Implementation
public abstract class AbstractMapEntry<K,V>
implements Map.Entry<K,V> {
// Primitive operations
public abstract K getKey();
public abstract V getValue();
// Entries in modifiable maps must override this method
public V setValue(V value) {
throw new UnsupportedOperationException();
}
// Implements the general contract of Map.Entry.equals
@Override public boolean equals(Object o) {
if (o == this)
return true;
if (! (o instanceof Map.Entry))
return false;
Map.Entry<?,?> arg = (Map.Entry) o;
return equals(getKey(), arg.getKey()) &&
equals(getValue(), arg.getValue());
}
private static boolean equals(Object o1, Object o2) {
return o1 == null ? o2 == null : o1.equals(o2);
}
// Implements the general contract of Map.Entry.hashCode
@Override public int hashCode() {
return hashCode(getKey()) ^ hashCode(getValue());
}
private static int hashCode(Object obj) {
return obj == null ? 0 : obj.hashCode();
}
}

Because skeletal implementations are designed for inheritance, you should follow all of the design and documentation guidelines in Item 17.

Using abstract classes to define types that permit multiple implementations has one great advantage over using interfaces: It is far easier to evolve an abstract class than an interface.

Once an interface is released and widely implemented, it is almost impossible to change.

To summarize, an interface is generally the best way to define a type that permits multiple implementations. An exception to this rule is the case where ease of evolution is deemed more important than flexibility and power. Under these circumstances, you should use an abstract class to define the type, but only if you understand and can accept the limitations. If you export a nontrivial interface, you should strongly consider providing a skeletal implementation to go with it. Finally, you should design all of your public interfaces with the utmost care and test them thoroughly by writing multiple implementations.

Reference: Effective Java 2nd Edition by Joshua Bloch