Java 8 Default Method Examples

Default Methods provide a way to provide a default implementation for a method in an interface. By providing a default implementation, you can add new methods to your interface without breaking backwards compatibility for existing code that already implements your interfaces.

In the old-days, if you changed an interface then all code that implemented that interface would need to be updated to implement the new method.

In a project you were working on this might have required changing code all over your project which could have been be a real pain if your project was large. If the interface that changed was one from a commonly-used library then that would have been a really huge impact on all of the projects that used that particular library! What a nightmare!

Lets take a look at a simple example of how default methods can be used:

package xyz.byexample.java8;

interface Person {
    String getName();
    default void greet() {
       System.out.println("Hello");
    }
}

class John implements Person {
    public String getName() {
        return "John";
    }
}

class Mary implements Person {
    public String getName() {
        return "Mary";
    }
    public void greet() {
        System.out.println("Hi");
    }
}

public class Default {
      public static void main(String[] args) {
          John john = new John();
          Mary mary = new Mary();
          System.out.print(john.getName() + " says: ");
          john.greet();
          System.out.print(mary.getName() + " says: ");
          mary.greet();
    }
}

Output

John says: Hello
Mary says: Hi

Here the John class is using the default implementation of greet taken from the interface Person, but the Mary class is overriding that with its own implementation. Just like always, both John and Mary have to implement the getName method since no default was provided in the interface.

Multiple Inheritance

Since classes can implement multiple interfaces, default methods allows Java to get some basic multiple inheritance capabilities.

package xyz.byexample.java8;

interface One {
    default void sayHello() {
        System.out.println("Hello");
    }
}

interface Two {
    default void sayWorld() {
        System.out.println("World");
    }
}
class MultipleInterfaces implements One, Two {
    // Nothing implemented
}

public class Default {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        MultipleInterfaces mi = new MultipleInterfaces();
        mi.sayHello();
        mi.sayWorld();
    }
}

Output

Hello
World

If there is a clash where two interfaces declare the same method signature, the compiler will throw an error that the class inherits unrelated defaults from the interfaces. To solve this, you need to implement the method in your class and either call the code directly or do something entirely different.

package xyz.byexample.java8;

interface One {
    default void print() {
        System.out.println("Hello");
    }
}

interface Two {
    default void print() {
        System.out.println("World");
    }
}

class MultipleInterfaces implements One, Two {
    @Override
    public void print() {
        One.super.print();
        Two.super.print();
    }
}

public class Default {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        MultipleInterfaces mi = new MultipleInterfaces();
        mi.print();
    }
}

Output

Hello
World

Here we override the print method in the class that is implementing more than one interface and manually call the print method in each interface - we could have of course done something entirely different here if we wanted.

Interfaces vs abstract classes

Both abstract classes and interfaces both offer a mix of methods declared with and without an implementation without the ability to be instantiated on their own, so which should you use?

It really comes down to what you’re trying to do:

• Abstract Classes can declare public, protected and private methods and fields.
• Interfaces can only declare public default methods, and public or static fields.
• Classes can only inherit from one class, but can implement many interfaces.

If you expect that your code will be needed by a wide range of unrelated code then use an interface. If you expect that your code will be used by a limited set of closely-related code and/or need private or protected access modifiers then use an abstract class.