PHP OOP - Interface

In this tutorial we will learn about interface in PHP.

What is Interface?

In OOP, an interface is a collection of public methods that must be implemented by the classes that use them.

How to create an interface?

We use the interface keyword to create an interface.

In the following example we have created an interface ISample having two public methods foo() and wow().

An interface must always contain public methods.

interface ISample {
	
	public function foo();

	public function wow($text);

}

It is a convention to put capital I before the name of an interface. You can also put small i.

How to implement an interface?

We use the implements keyword when we want a class to implement an interface.

In the following example we have an interface ISample having public methods foo() and wow() and we have a class Po that implements the interface ISample.

//interface
interface ISample {
	
	public function foo();

	public function wow($text);

}


//class implementing the interface
class Po implements ISample {
	
	//implement methods of ISample

	public function foo() {
		printf("Inside foo...");
	}

	public function wow($text) {
		printf("Inside wow... text = %s", $text);
	}

}


//creating object of Po
$obj = new Po();

$obj->foo();	//this will print "Inside foo..."

$obj->wow("Hello");	//this will print "Inside wow... text = Hello"

Implementing multiple interfaces

A class can implement multiple interfaces by separating them using comma.

In the following example we have two interfaces ISample and IHappy and a class Po that implements the two interfaces.

//interfaces
interface ISample {
	public function foo();
}

interface IHappy {
	public function wow();
}


//class implementing the interfaces
class Po implements ISample, IHappy {
	
	//implementing interface methods

	public function foo() {
		printf("Inside foo...");
	}

	public function wow() {
		printf("Inside wow...");
	}
}


//creating object of Po
$obj = new Po();

$obj->foo();	//this prints "Inside foo..."

$obj->wow();	//this prints "Inside wow..."

Interface can extend other Interface

We can use the extends keyword to extend (inherit) an interface.

In the following example interface ISample extends IHappy and a class Po implements the IHappy interface.

interface ISample {
	public function foo();
}

interface IHappy extends ISample {
	public function wow();
}

//class implementing the interface
class Po implements IHappy {
	
	public function foo() {
		printf("inside foo...");
	}

	public function wow() {
		printf("inside wow...");
	}
}

Multiple inheritance of interface

An interface can inherit multiple interfaces by separating them by comma.

In the following example we have an interface IDeveloper that inherits two interfaces IFrontend and IBackend. Then we have a class Po then implements the IDeveloper interface.

//interfaces
interface IFrontend {
	public function f_end();
}

interface IBackend {
	public function b_end();
}

//interface inheriting multiple interfaces
interface IDeveloper extends IFrontend, IBackend {
	public function dev();
}


//class implementing interface
class Po implements IDeveloper {
	
	public function f_end() {
		printf("Inside f_end...");
	}

	public function b_end() {
		printf("Inside b_end...");
	}

	public function dev() {
		printf("Inside dev...");
	}
}

Interface with constants

We can also have constants inside an interface but we can't override them in other class and interface.

In the following example we have an interface ISample having a constant HAPPY_CODE. And we have a class Po that implements ISample.

//interface with constant
interface ISample {
	
	const HAPPY_CODE = 10;

	public function foo();
	
}

//class implements an interface
class Po implements ISample {
	
	public function foo() {
		printf("Constant HAPPY_CODE = %d", Po::HAPPY_CODE);
	}
	
}


//creating object of Po
$obj = new Po();

$obj->foo();	//this will print "Constant HAPPY_CODE = 10"