How do I implement interfaces in python?

python oop
Pratik Deoghare picture Pratik Deoghare · Jan 23, 2010 · Viewed 263.7k times · Source 
public interface IInterface
{
    void show();
}

 public class MyClass : IInterface
{

    #region IInterface Members

    public void show()
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Hello World!");
    }

    #endregion
}

How do I implement Python equivalent of this C# code ?

class IInterface(object):
    def __init__(self):
        pass

    def show(self):
        raise Exception("NotImplementedException")


class MyClass(IInterface):
   def __init__(self):
       IInterface.__init__(self)

   def show(self):
       print 'Hello World!'

Is this a good idea?? Please give examples in your answers.

Answer

Lennart Regebro picture Lennart Regebro · Jan 23, 2010

As mentioned by other here:

Interfaces are not necessary in Python. This is because Python has proper multiple inheritance, and also ducktyping, which means that the places where you must have interfaces in Java, you don't have to have them in Python.

That said, there are still several uses for interfaces. Some of them are covered by Pythons Abstract Base Classes, introduced in Python 2.6. They are useful, if you want to make base classes that cannot be instantiated, but provide a specific interface or part of an implementation.

Another usage is if you somehow want to specify that an object implements a specific interface, and you can use ABC's for that too by subclassing from them. Another way is zope.interface, a module that is a part of the Zope Component Architecture, a really awesomely cool component framework. Here you don't subclass from the interfaces, but instead mark classes (or even instances) as implementing an interface. This can also be used to look up components from a component registry. Supercool!

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