Constructors for Interface

[karthik manick]

I read this in a website "Constructor arguments cannot be specified on an interface". Is it so? Please explain why?
Serlets are also interfaces...but i have seen constructors for servlets...contrdicting?

[Joanne Neal]

The simple answer is - that's the way Java was designed.
You might find a more expansive answer in the Java Language Specification

[Nicola Garofalo]

Interfaces and Constructors?
You shouldn't even think about constructors when you deal with interfaces, regardless of the number of parameters.
Interface is not a class, it does not have constructors.

[karthik manick]

Servlets are also intefaces rt? then how we have constructors for that? confusing...

[Nicola Garofalo]

When you write a Servlet, you are writing a class that implements Servlet interface (directly or indirectly extending the abstract class HttpServlet that indirectly implements Servlet interface).

The path is:

YourServlet extends HttpServlet that extends GenericServlet that implements Servlet. Thus, YourServlet implements Servlet

Since you are writing a class, you can talk about constructors.

[David Newton]

karthik manick wrote:Servlets are also intefaces rt? then how we have constructors for that? confusing...

Not really: the constructors aren't part of the interface. Classes have constructors. Interfaces don't. *All* classes have constructors (even if it's not explicitly coded by you, there's still a default constructor) regardless of any interfaces it implements.

[Istvan Kovacs]

karthik manick wrote:I read this in a website "Constructor arguments cannot be specified on an interface". Is it so? Please explain why?
Serlets are also interfaces...but i have seen constructors for servlets...contrdicting?

public class Test
{
    public List<String> getText()
    {
        List<String> text = new ArrayList<String>();
        return text;
    }
}

List is an interface, and defines a contract (what methods are available in classes that implement it).
ArrayList is a class, it can be instantiated. It has constructors.
Methods can hide creating instances, and return the interface, just like above. That way, they can hide their internal behaviour, which helps you write code that's easier to maintain: you don't have to worry about the type that's used internally, whether it's an ArrayList, a LinkedList, a CopyOnWriteArrayList or SomeSpecialList.

Same with your servlets.

[karthik manick]

Thanks to everyone

[Harry Tuttle]

karthik manick wrote:Please explain why?

interfaces cannot be instantiate so you don't need any constructor.