Interface Basics

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An Interface’s function known as a “contract” of functionality. It means that it declares properties and methods but it doesn’t implement them.

So unlike classes Interfaces:

public interface ICanDoThis{
    void TheThingICanDo();
    int SomeValueProperty { get; set; }
}

Things to notice:

public class MyClass : ICanDoThis {
    public void TheThingICanDo(){
        // do the thing
    }

    public int SomeValueProperty { get; set; }
    public int SomeValueNotImplemtingAnything { get; set; }
}

.

ICanDoThis obj = new MyClass();

// ok
obj.TheThingICanDo();

// ok
obj.SomeValueProperty = 5;

// Error, this member doesn't exist in the interface
obj.SomeValueNotImplemtingAnything = 5;

// in order to access the property in the class you must "down cast" it
((MyClass)obj).SomeValueNotImplemtingAnything = 5; // ok

This is especially useful when you’re working with UI frameworks such as WinForms or WPF because it’s mandatory to inherit from a base class to create user control and you loose the ability to create abstraction over different control types. An example? Coming up:

public class MyTextBlock : TextBlock {
    public void SetText(string str){
        this.Text = str;
    }
}

public class MyButton : Button {
    public void SetText(string str){
        this.Content = str;
    }
}

The problem proposed is that both contain some concept of “Text” but the property names differ. And you can’t create create a abstract base class because they have a mandatory inheritance to 2 different classes. An interface can alleviate that

public interface ITextControl{
    void SetText(string str);
}

public class MyTextBlock : TextBlock, ITextControl {
    public void SetText(string str){
        this.Text = str;
    }
}

public class MyButton : Button, ITextControl {
    public void SetText(string str){
        this.Content = str;
    }

    public int Clicks { get; set; }
}

Now MyButton and MyTextBlock is interchangeable.

var controls = new List<ITextControls>{
    new MyTextBlock(),
    new MyButton()
};

foreach(var ctrl in controls){
    ctrl.SetText("This text will be applied to both controls despite them being different");

    // Compiler Error, no such member in interface
    ctrl.Clicks = 0;

    // Runtime Error because 1 class is in fact not a button which makes this cast invalid
    ((MyButton)ctrl).Clicks = 0;

    /* the solution is to check the type first.
    This is usually considered bad practice since
    it's a symptom of poor abstraction */
    var button = ctrl as MyButton;
    if(button != null)
        button.Clicks = 0; // no errors

   
}

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Interfaces:
* Interface Basics

Table Of Contents
17 Regex
19 Arrays
21 Enum
22 Tuples
24 GUID
27 Looping
36 Casting
40 Interfaces
46 Methods
88 Events
92 Structs
104 Indexer
106 Stream
107 Timers
109 Threading
127 Caching
135 Pointers
147 C# Script