C#•2y ago

What are Interfaces used for

I've seen a lot of people talk good things about Interfaces now and I see them used a ton
Personally I've not used them yet (in the sense of creating them), but what are the actual benefits from a perspective of someone who has used them in the past

Kao•3/21/24, 10:57 AM

Ah the interfaces. The question is a good one, but not that easy to understand, nor to explain correctly

Kao•3/21/24, 10:58 AM

Do you at least know what an interface is, before wondering what they are for?

The Fog from Human ResourcesOP•3/21/24, 10:58 AM

Yes I have an idea

The Fog from Human ResourcesOP•3/21/24, 10:59 AM

Afaik they allow for an easy implementation of stuff instead of creating objects or smth

Kao•3/21/24, 11:36 AM

Interfaces are what we could call "contratcs". When a class implements an interface it mean it must respect the contract (and so implements every method of the interface).

KKao Interfaces are what we could call "contratcs". When a class implements an interf...

The Fog from Human ResourcesOP•3/21/24, 12:10 PM

But then what's the benefit of them if I'm just gonna implement the functions over and over anyways

Kao•3/21/24, 12:16 PM

Being sure that something has a given behaviour

Kao•3/21/24, 12:16 PM

Have you ever used LINQ or foreach in C#?

dance?•3/21/24, 12:37 PM

it's like saying that every device has an usb port
the usb port project would be the interface
the device with the usb port would be the class, the implementation
you make sure that every device uses the same port, that it's always compatible

KKao Have you ever used LINQ or foreach in C#?

The Fog from Human ResourcesOP•3/21/24, 12:41 PM

LINQ yes from time to time, foreach all the time

TThe Fog from Human Resources LINQ yes from time to time, foreach all the time

Kao•3/21/24, 12:41 PM

It's possible thanks to interfaces

Kao•3/21/24, 12:42 PM

Without knowing if you give it a List or an Array or whatever, it just needs to be sure it respect a given contract

Kao•3/21/24, 12:42 PM

The contact being IEnumerable

The Fog from Human ResourcesOP•3/21/24, 12:42 PM

Would I also need to like implement all functions including the behavior and such

Kao•3/21/24, 12:43 PM

Yes you need to implement all methods of an Interface, the way you want

KKao The contact being IEnumerable

The Fog from Human ResourcesOP•3/21/24, 12:43 PM

IEnumerals are lovely to use.

Kao•3/21/24, 12:43 PM

It just means that anywhere that needs that interface you can put whatever that respects it

The Fog from Human ResourcesOP•3/21/24, 12:43 PM

Kao•3/21/24, 12:43 PM

The main goal is to decouple implementation from usage

Kao•3/21/24, 12:44 PM

For enumerables : I don't need to know how the data is stored or generated, just just want something I can iterate over

The Fog from Human ResourcesOP•3/21/24, 12:45 PM

So if I were to have an interface of an entity for example
I'd create some Object (for example a player) and that player implements that Entity Interface to make sure the player has all of that Entity

Kao•3/21/24, 12:45 PM

For something like saving data : I don't need to know if it stores over network, in json or in database. I just need to know it saves my data and so has a Save() and Load() methods for example

TThe Fog from Human Resources So if I were to have an interface of an entity for example I'd create some Objec...