Anonymous class behavior confusion !

[Shailesh Phatak]

Hello Everyone
I have a query from K & B book chapter 8, it is written over there that "Anonymous interface implementers can implement only one interface. There simply isn't any mechanism to say that your Anonymous inner class is going to implement multiple interface not even they can extebd a class and implement an interface. The inner clas has to choose either to be a subclass of named class and not implement any interfaces at all-or to implement a single interace."

Can any one explain above with an example? What i get from this statement is this:-

 interface Interf extends Runnable{
   public void drink();
   }

class InnerAnoInsideRunnableClass implements Runnable,Interf{

  Runnable f=new Runnable(){

              public void run(){
                   System.out.println("Human runs in Anonymous Interface ");
               }

        Interf IF=new Interf(){
	    	   public void drink(){
					  System.out.println("Human Inside anonymous class");
			   }
	    	   public void run(){
	 	            System.out.println("Human Inside Anonymous class ");
		       }
		  };
       };

  Interf i=new Interf(){
		  public void drink(){
			  System.out.println("Human drinks water in anonymous class");
	      }
	      public void run(){
            System.out.println("Human runs in Anonymous class ");
    	  }
	   };

public void doYou(){
	   f.run();
	   i.drink();
	   i.run();
   }


public void drink(){
			  System.out.println("Human drinks water in MAIN class");
	      }

public void run(){
            System.out.println("Human runs in interf interface ");
    	  }


 public static void main(String args[]){
      InnerAnoInsideRunnableClass i=new InnerAnoInsideRunnableClass();
      i.doYou();
       }
  }   

But it runs properly

[Harpreet Singh janda]

It means that Anonymous classes can only be defined for one interface of abstract class
Here Anonymous classes are created at line # 7 and 23.
First is implementing Runnable interface and second is implementing Interf interface.
In both the case you are implementing single interface at a time. You can't implement Runnable and Interf simultaneously as in normal class.

[Shailesh Phatak]

At line 13 i did that

[Nidhi Sar]

Shailesh,

The statement is quite clear. An anonymous class can extend one class OR implement one interface. There is just no way that an anonymous class can derive from more than one class/interface.

In your example, you have created 3 anonymous classes:-

1. Anonymous class at line 7, that implements the interface Runnable
2. Anonymous class at line 13, that implements the interface Interf
3. Anonymous class at line 23, that implements the interface Interf

Each one implements one interface, as should be.

So, what is your confusion about?

- Nidhi

[Shailesh Phatak]

Hi Nidhi,
I have extended Runnable interface to Interf at line 1 so multiple interfaces are implemented at Line 13 anonymous class. i am confused about that. If you please write a code it will be helpful for me to understand the above statement.

[Harpreet Singh janda]

Sorry i missed line#13

[Nidhi Sar]

Shailesh Phatak wrote:At line 13 i did that

Not quite :-)

At line 13, you did this:
Created an instance variable IF of the anonymous class (that was declared on line 7).
instantiated IF creating a new anonymous class that implements Interf

Interf itself implements Runnable.

You are implementing just one interface. That interface may be implementing multiple interfaces.

Let me try to put it another way, using classes. Consider the following code:

class GrandParent{}
class Parent extends GrandParent{}
class Child extends Parent{}

class XYZ extends Child{}     

XYZ is extending just one class, Child. The fact that Parent & GrandParent are in the hierarchy of Child does not mean that XYZ extends from multiple classes.

Hope that clears your doubt!

- Nidhi

[Shailesh Phatak]

It means if i do

  
interface AnotherInter{
 public void doThis();
}
interface Interf extends Runnable,AnotherInter{  
   public void drink();  
   }   

and implement it at line 13 it will not execute. Am i correct??

[Devaka Cooray]

Shailesh,
Please UseAMeaningfulSubjectLine instead of something like "Confused!" when you post a question.
Please edit your post to add a meaningful subject line by clicking the button.

[Harpreet Singh janda]

No, It will execute.
The point here is that you can not extend or implement more then one class, interface while defining an Anonymous class.

when you will create Anonymous class for Interf you will provide definitions of required methods and it will work fine because Interf is extending Runnable and AnotherInter and when you will implement it as a Anonymous class it will be a single Interface, not two seperate interface.

[Shailesh Phatak]

Please give me a code I am sorry since i am not getting it

[Ankit Garg]

As you know, java doesn't support multiple inheritance of classes, now if I have these classes

class Base{}
class Middle extends Base{}
class Sub extends Middle{}

Now here would you say that Sub extends both Middle and Base?? Sub extends from only Middle. Sub inherits behavior of both Base and Middle, but it directly only extends from Middle. In the same way at line 13 in your program, the anonymous inner class is only implementing the Interf interface. Runnable is a super-interface of Interf, but the anonymous inner class doesn't directly implement Runnable. So the anonymous inner class actually implements only one interface...

[Shailesh Phatak]

Now what will make the above code to not get compiled?? I mean what should i change in the above program so that it will break the rules which are said in above statement?? At least give me a "code" so that i should understand it properly.. .

[Ankit Garg]

interface MyInterface{}
class MyClass{}
class MyClass2{}
class Main{
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        MyClass myClass = new MyClass implements MyInterface(){};      //error
        MyInterface myInterface = new MyInterface extends MyClass(){}; //error
        MyClass myClass2 = new MyClass extends MyClass2(){};           //error
    }
}

[Shailesh Phatak]

Thanks Ankit for clarifying my doubt