Basic Concepts

In the context of object-oriented programming,

an interface refers to a specific set of methods that a class or object must implement to fulfill a certain contract

It defines the external behavior and capabilities that other classes or objects can expect from an implementing class. Specifically,

An interface does not contain any implementation details; instead, it serves as a blueprint for defining the structure and functionality that classes must adhere to

In some programming languages, such as Java and C#, there is a formal construct called an "interface" that allows you to define a collection of method signatures without any method bodies. A class can then implement this interface by providing concrete implementations for all the methods declared in the interface. This enables multiple classes to share a common interface, making them more interchangeable and allowing polymorphism.

For example, let's consider a simple interface in Python-like syntax:

from abc import ABC, abstractmethod

# Interface definition
class Drawable(ABC):
    @abstractmethod
    def draw(self):
        pass

    @abstractmethod
    def get_area(self):
        pass

In this example, we have defined an interface named "Drawable" with two abstract methods: "draw" and "get_area." Any class that implements this interface must provide concrete implementations for both methods.

A class that implements the "Drawable" interface could be as follows:

class Circle(Drawable):
    def draw(self):
        # Implementation of draw for a circle
        pass

    def get_area(self):
        # Implementation of get_area for a circle
        pass