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loyalflow
loyalflow

Reputation: 14919

How Go's interface programming model compares to OOP?

I have read through most of the Go tour tutorial, but I'm still unclear on how Go's interface programming model compares with OOP?

Can someone explain how I can start 'thinking in Go'?

I'm confused how you can define an interface, and then create objects based on the interface?

Does Go implicitly create an concrete implementation for you during compile time?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 186

Answers (3)

Volker
Volker

Reputation: 42429

Traditional (Java) OO is about class hierarchies. You model your problem with classes, some abstract, some final and interfaces. Then you provide implementations.

Go lets you go the other way around: Start with concrete types and implement your logic. If a useful abstraction emerges or is required: Pack it into an interface and refactor your code to use this interface type.

Upvotes: 0

asm
asm

Reputation: 8898

Go's interface system is akin to structural typing. Consider a snippet of python code:

def foo(bar):
   bar.baz(5)

In this snippet we don't know what concrete type bar is but we can say that it must have a baz method which accepts a single int argument. Note that when we're writing the class of bar we don't have to declare that we're implementing this 'interface' (having a baz method which takes an integer). We just write a baz method which works correctly when called with a single int and we can pass an instance to the foo method.

Go works in a similar manner but everything is checked at compile time. In Python if we pass our foo method an instance of a class which does not have a baz method we get a runtime exception. In Go we would define an interface with the baz method and state in the type of foo that it takes an instance of that interface. Now any type which has a baz method on a single int satisfies the type that foo requires.

Upvotes: 2

Jeremy Wall
Jeremy Wall

Reputation: 25245

One of the problems OOP usually tries to solve is Polymorphism or the the ability for two different classes to have instances that behave the same. Usually in OOP this is accomplished by using inheritance. A Base class defines a minimal interface that other classes extend. All of the subclasses of Base class can be used as a Base class.

Go does the same thing not by inheritance but using interfaces. An interface is a "description" of behaviour. It is up to the individual Types in Go to satisfy this description by implementing each of the methods described in the interface. If a Type does implement all the methods described in the interface then it automatically satisfies the interface and can be cast to that interface automatically by the compiler.

Upvotes: 2

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