Object interfaces allow you to create code which specifies which methods a class must implement, without having to define how these methods are implemented. Interfaces share a namespace with classes and traits, so they may not use the same name.
Interfaces are defined in the same way as a class, but with the interface
keyword replacing the class
keyword and without any of the methods having
their contents defined.
All methods declared in an interface must be public; this is the nature of an interface.
In practice, interfaces serve two complementary purposes:
Iterable
, Cacheable
, Renderable
,
or so on to describe the significance of the behavior.
Interfaces may define magic methods to require implementing classes to implement those methods.
Note:
Although they are supported, including constructors in interfaces is strongly discouraged. Doing so significantly reduces the flexibility of the object implementing the interface. Additionally, constructors are not enforced by inheritance rules, which can cause inconsistent and unexpected behavior.
implements
To implement an interface, the implements
operator is used.
All methods in the interface must be implemented within a class; failure to do
so will result in a fatal error. Classes may implement more than one interface
if desired by separating each interface with a comma.
A class that implements an interface may use a different name for its parameters than the interface. However, as of PHP 8.0 the language supports named arguments, which means callers may rely on the parameter name in the interface. For that reason, it is strongly recommended that developers use the same parameter names as the interface being implemented.
Note:
Interfaces can be extended like classes using the extends operator.
Note:
The class implementing the interface must declare all methods in the interface with a compatible signature. A class can implement multiple interfaces which declare a method with the same name. In this case, the implementation must follow the signature compatibility rules for all the interfaces. So covariance and contravariance can be applied.
Constants
It's possible for interfaces to have constants. Interface constants work exactly like class constants. Prior to PHP 8.1.0, they cannot be overridden by a class/interface that inherits them.
Example #1 Interface example
<?php
// Declare the interface 'Template'
interface Template
{
public function setVariable($name, $var);
public function getHtml($template);
}
// Implement the interface
// This will work
class WorkingTemplate implements Template
{
private $vars = [];
public function setVariable($name, $var)
{
$this->vars[$name] = $var;
}
public function getHtml($template)
{
foreach($this->vars as $name => $value) {
$template = str_replace('{' . $name . '}', $value, $template);
}
return $template;
}
}
// This will not work
// Fatal error: Class BadTemplate contains 1 abstract methods
// and must therefore be declared abstract (Template::getHtml)
class BadTemplate implements Template
{
private $vars = [];
public function setVariable($name, $var)
{
$this->vars[$name] = $var;
}
}
?>
Example #2 Extendable Interfaces
<?php
interface A
{
public function foo();
}
interface B extends A
{
public function baz(Baz $baz);
}
// This will work
class C implements B
{
public function foo()
{
}
public function baz(Baz $baz)
{
}
}
// This will not work and result in a fatal error
class D implements B
{
public function foo()
{
}
public function baz(Foo $foo)
{
}
}
?>
Example #3 Variance compatibility with multiple interfaces
<?php
class Foo {}
class Bar extends Foo {}
interface A {
public function myfunc(Foo $arg): Foo;
}
interface B {
public function myfunc(Bar $arg): Bar;
}
class MyClass implements A, B
{
public function myfunc(Foo $arg): Bar
{
return new Bar();
}
}
?>
Example #4 Multiple interface inheritance
<?php
interface A
{
public function foo();
}
interface B
{
public function bar();
}
interface C extends A, B
{
public function baz();
}
class D implements C
{
public function foo()
{
}
public function bar()
{
}
public function baz()
{
}
}
?>
Example #5 Interfaces with constants
<?php
interface A
{
const B = 'Interface constant';
}
// Prints: Interface constant
echo A::B;
class B implements A
{
const B = 'Class constant';
}
// Prints: Class constant
// Prior to PHP 8.1.0, this will however not work because it was not
// allowed to override constants.
echo B::B;
?>
Example #6 Interfaces with abstract classes
<?php
interface A
{
public function foo(string $s): string;
public function bar(int $i): int;
}
// An abstract class may implement only a portion of an interface.
// Classes that extend the abstract class must implement the rest.
abstract class B implements A
{
public function foo(string $s): string
{
return $s . PHP_EOL;
}
}
class C extends B
{
public function bar(int $i): int
{
return $i * 2;
}
}
?>
Example #7 Extending and implementing simultaneously
<?php
class One
{
/* ... */
}
interface Usable
{
/* ... */
}
interface Updatable
{
/* ... */
}
// The keyword order here is important. 'extends' must come first.
class Two extends One implements Usable, Updatable
{
/* ... */
}
?>
An interface, together with type declarations, provides a good way to make sure that a particular object contains particular methods. See instanceof operator and type declarations.