VietMX Staff asked 3 years ago
Java provides and supports the creation both of abstract classes and interfaces. Both implementations share some common characteristics, but they differ in the following features:
- All methods in an interface are implicitly abstract. On the other hand, an abstract class may contain both abstract and non-abstract methods.
- A class may implement a number of Interfaces, but can extend only one abstract class.
- In order for a class to implement an interface, it must implement all its declared methods. However, a class may not implement all declared methods of an abstract class. Though, in this case, the sub-class must also be declared as abstract.
- Abstract classes can implement interfaces without even providing the implementation of interface methods.
- Variables declared in a Java interface is by default final. An abstract class may contain non-final variables.
- Members of a Java interface are public by default. A member of an abstract class can either be private, protected or public.
- An interface is absolutely abstract and cannot be instantiated. An abstract class also cannot be instantiated, but can be invoked if it contains a main method.
