Unit 5

Packages and Interfaces

 Package
• Package in Java is a mechanism to encapsulate
a group of classes, sub packages and
interfaces.
• Package MyPackage;
 Use of Package
• Preventing naming conflicts. For example there
can be two classes with name Employee in two
packages, college.staff.cse.Employee and
college.staff.ee.Employee
• Making searching/locating and usage of classes,
interfaces, enumerations and annotations easier
• Providing controlled access: protected and default
have package level access control. A protected
member is accessible by classes in the same
package and its subclasses. A default member
(without any access specifier) is accessible by
classes in the same package only.
• Packages can be considered as data encapsulation
(or data-hiding).
Types of Package
 Built-in Packages
• 1) java.lang: Contains language support classes(e.g
classed which defines primitive data types, math
operations). This package is automatically imported.
2) java.io: Contains classed for supporting input /
output operations.
3) java.util: Contains utility classes which implement
data structures like Linked List, Dictionary and support ;
for Date / Time operations.
4) java.applet: Contains classes for creating Applets.
5) java.awt: Contain classes for implementing the
components for graphical user interfaces (like button ,
;menus etc).
6) java.net: Contain classes for supporting networking
operations.
 Example

javac -d directory javafilename

 Access Package
1) import package.*

All Classes
& Interfaces
But not sub
packages
2. import package.classname;
3. import fully qualified name
Name Conflicts
Sub Package
 Static import
• to access any static member of a class directly.
There is no need to qualify it by the class
name.
 Interface
• Interfaces specify what a class must do and not how. It
is the blueprint of the class.
• An Interface is about capabilities like a Player may be
an interface and any class implementing Player must
be able to (or must implement) move(). So it specifies a
set of methods that the class has to implement.
• If a class implements an interface and does not provide
method bodies for all functions specified in the
interface, then class must be declared abstract.
• A Java library example is, Comparator Interface. If a
class implements this interface, then it can be used to
sort a collection.
• Abstraction, Multiple Inheritance, IS-A relationship.
Java 8 Interface (Improvement)
Example
• It is both permissible and common for classes
that implement interfaces to define additional
members of their own.
 Accessing Implementations Through
Interface References

• c=Interface Reference Variable

• variable c is declared to be of the interface
type Callback, yet it was assigned an instance
of Client
• An interface reference variable only has
knowledge of the methods declared by its
interface declaration. Thus, c could not be
used to access nonIfaceMeth( ) since it is
defined by Client but not Callback.
Multiple Inheritance by Interface
Interface Inheritance
 Instanceof operator
• The java instanceof operator is used to test
whether the object is an instance of the
specified type (class or subclass or interface).
• Comparison operator.
• If we apply the instanceof operator with any
variable that has null value, it returns false.
Abstract Class vs Interface