When to use an interface instead of an abstract class and vice versa?

Question

This may be a generic OOP question. I wanted to do a generic comparison between an interface and an abstract class on the basis of their usage.

When wou

Answer 1

OK, having just "grokked" this myself - here it is in layman's terms (feel free to correct me if I am wrong) - I know this topic is oooooold, but someone else might stumble across it one day...

Abstract classes allow you to create a blueprint, and allow you to additionally CONSTRUCT (implement) properties and methods you want ALL its descendants to possess.

An interface on the other hand only allows you to declare that you want properties and/or methods with a given name to exist in all classes that implement it - but doesn't specify how you should implement it. Also, a class can implement MANY interfaces, but can only extend ONE Abstract class. An Interface is more of a high level architectural tool (which becomes clearer if you start to grasp design patterns) - an Abstract has a foot in both camps and can perform some of the dirty work too.

Why use one over the other? The former allows for a more concrete definition of descendants - the latter allows for greater polymorphism. This last point is important to the end user/coder, who can utilise this information to implement the A.P.I(nterface) in a variety of combinations/shapes to suit their needs.

I think this was the "lightbulb" moment for me - think about interfaces less from the author's perpective and more from that of any coder coming later in the chain who is adding implementation to a project, or extending an API.