Interfaces

The components of a class have visibility sections, which define the external point
of contact between the class and its consumer. For example, the public components
of a class define its public scope, since all of its attributes and method
parameters can be addressed by all consumers. The protected components are an
interface between the class and those classes that inherit from it (the
subclasses).

Interfaces are independent structures that enable the class-specific public points
of contact to be enhanced by implementing them in classes. Different classes that
implement the same interface can all be addressed in the same way. Alongside
inheritance, interfaces are one of the pillars of polymorphism, since they allow a
single method within an interface to behave differently in different classes.
Interface reference variables allow consumers to address different classes in the
same manner. Interfaces can also be nested.

Defining Interfaces
Interface Components
Implementing Interfaces
Interface Reference Variables
Accessing Objects Using Interface References
Accessing the Static Components of Interfaces
Defining Interfaces

Like classes, interfaces can be defined either globally in the repository or

locally in an ABAP program.

Interface Components

Exactly the same components can be defined in an interface as in a class.

Implementing Interfaces

Unlike classes, interfaces do not have instances. Instead, interfaces are

implemented by classes. The statement INTERFACES in the declaration part of a class
is used to implement interfaces in a class. This statement may only appear in the
public section of the class, namely after PUBLIC SECTION. Some interface components
can be modified to meet the requirements of the class. For example, methods can be
identified as abstract or final, or initial values can be assigned to attributes.

When an interface is implemented in a class, the components of the interface are

added to the other components in the public section. A component comp of an
interface intf can be addressed as though it were a member of the class under the
name intf~comp. For use outside and inside the classes, ALIASES can be used to
define alias names for these components.

The class must implement the methods of all interfaces implemented in it. The
implementation part of the class must contain a method implementation for each non-
abstract and non-optional interface method meth:

METHOD intf~meth.
...
ENDMETHOD.
Interface methods defined as optional using the addition DEFAULT do not need to be
implemented explicitly and demonstrate default behavior when called.

Interfaces can be implemented by different classes. Each of these classes is

enhanced using the same set of components. However, the methods of the interface
can be implemented differently in each class.

Interfaces enable different classes to be used in a uniform way using interface

reference variables (known as polymorphism). Interfaces that are implemented in
different classes add the same components to the public interfaces of these
classes. If a class does not have any class-specific public components, the
interfaces define the entire public face of the class.

Interface Reference Variables

Object references are used in object reference variables to address objects.

Instead of creating reference variables with reference to a class, they can also be
created with reference to an interface. This kind of reference variable can contain
references to objects of classes that implement the corresponding interface. A
reference variable obj with reference to an interface intf is declared using the
statement DATA obj TYPE REF TO intf. This reference variable allows programs access
to precisely those components defined in the interface, namely the components of an
object that were added to the class-specific components by implementing the
interface.

Accessing Objects Using Interface References

To create an object of the class class, a reference variable cref must first be
declared with reference to the class. If the class class implements an interface
intf, the class reference variable cref can be assigned to the interface reference
variable iref as follows:
iref = cref.
The reference in iref now points to the same object as the reference in cref.

It is also possible to create an object directly to which the interface reference

variable points initially. In this case, the TYPE addition of the statement CREATE
OBJECT must be used to specify a class that implements the interface.
CREATE OBJECT iref TYPE class.
If the interface intf contains an instance attribute attr and an instance method
meth, the interface components can be addressed as follows:

Using the class reference variable (not recommended)

Accessing an attribute attr: cref->intf~attr
Calling a method meth: cref->intf~meth
Using the interface reference variable (recommended):
Accessing an attribute attr: iref->attr
Calling a method meth: iref->meth( )
Accessing the Static Components of Interfaces

As far as the static components of interfaces are concerned, the interface name can
only be used to access constants.
Accessing a constant const: intf=>const
For all other static components of an interface, only object references or the
class class that implements the interface can be used.
Accessing a static attribute attr:class=>intf~attr
Calling a static method meth: class=>intf~meth( )