Can we create an instance of an interface in Java?

Question

Is it possible to create an instance of an interface in Java?

Somewhere I have read that using inner anonymous class we can do it as shown below:

interface Test {
    public void wish();
}

class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Test t = new Test() {
            public void wish() {
                System.out.println("output: hello how r u");
            }
        };
        t.wish();
    }
}

cmd> javac Main.java
cmd> java Main
output: hello how r u

Is it correct here?

Answer 1

You can never instantiate an interface in java. You can, however, refer to an object that implements an interface by the type of the interface. For example,

public interface A
{
}
public class B implements A
{
}

public static void main(String[] args)
{
    A test = new B();
    //A test = new A(); // wont compile
}

What you did above was create an Anonymous class that implements the interface. You are creating an Anonymous object, not an object of type interface Test.