Abstraction

Abstraction is a fundamental concept in object-oriented programming (OOP) that allows developers to hide complex implementation details and focus on essential functionalities. In C#, Abstraction is achieved through abstract classes.

An abstract class is a class that cannot be instantiated which means that we cannot create an object of that class. An abstract class can contain attributes and methods like any other class however it may also contain abstract methods which are blueprint methods meant to be implemented by derived classes.

We can create an abstract class by adding the abstract keyword before the class definition. For-example, lets create an abstract class called Shape:

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using System;

abstract class Shape
{
    protected float circumference;

    public float getCircumference()
    {
        return circumference;
    }
}

class ConsoleApp
{
    static void Main()
    {
        Shape s = new Shape(); // Error: Cannot create an instance of an abstract class
    }
}

Similarly, we can create an abstract method by adding the keyword abstract before its return type. An abstract method does not have any body - it is simply a blueprint:

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abstract class Shape
{
    protected float circumference;

    public float getCircumference()
    {
        return circumference;
    }

    public abstract float getArea();
}

The purpose of this is to create a blueprint for other classes. This helps in simplifying the code. To understand this better, let's look at the Polymorphism task from Chapter 5:

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using System;

class Shape
{
    // Perimeter is the length of the 'outline' of a shape
    protected float perimeter;

    public float getPerimeter()
    {
        return perimeter;
    }

    public virtual float getArea()
    {
        return 0.0f;
    }

    // A virtual method can only be either 'public' or 'protected'
    protected virtual float calculatorPerimeter()
    {
        return 0.0f;
    }
}

class Rectangle : Shape
{
    float width;
    float height;

    public Rectangle(float width, float height)
    {
        this.width = width;
        this.height = height;
        this.perimeter = getPerimeter();
    }

    public override float getArea()
    {
        return width * height;
    }

    protected override float calculatorPerimeter()
    {
        return width * 2 + height * 2;
    }
}

class Square : Shape
{
    float length;

    public Square(float length) 
    {
        this.length = length * length;
    }

    public override float getArea()
    {
        return length * length;
    }

    protected override float calculatorPerimeter()
    {
        return 4 * length;
    }
}

class Circle : Shape
{
    float radius;

    public Circle(float radius)
    {
        this.radius = radius;
    }

    // Area of a Circle = pi . r . r
    public override float getArea()
    {
        return 3.14f * radius * radius;
    }

    // Perimeter (or) Circumference: 2 . pi . r
    protected override float calculatorPerimeter()
    {
        return 2.00f * 3.14f * radius;
    }
}

class ConsoleApp
{
    static void Main()
    {
        Rectangle r1 = new Rectangle(10f, 20f);
        Square s1 = new Square(10f);
        Circle c1 = new Circle(10f);

        Console.WriteLine(r1.getArea());
        Console.WriteLine(s1.getArea());
        Console.WriteLine(c1.getArea());
    }
}

In the above example, we never intend to use the Shape class however we still had to write some bogus implementations of the getArea and calculatePerimeter methods inside the Shape class. We can somewhat simplify this code by making the Shape class abstract, apart from that we can also make the getArea and calculatePerimeter methods abstract.

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using System;

abstract class Shape
{
    // Perimeter is the length of the 'outline' of a shape
    protected float perimeter;

    public float getPerimeter()
    {
        return perimeter;
    }

    public abstract float getArea();
    protected abstract float calculatorPerimeter();
}

class Rectangle : Shape
{
    float width;
    float height;

    public Rectangle(float width, float height)
    {
        this.width = width;
        this.height = height;
        this.perimeter = getPerimeter();
    }

    public override float getArea()
    {
        return width * height;
    }

    protected override float calculatorPerimeter()
    {
        return width * 2 + height * 2;
    }
}

class Square : Shape
{
    float length;

    public Square(float length) 
    {
        this.length = length * length;
    }

    public override float getArea()
    {
        return length * length;
    }

    protected override float calculatorPerimeter()
    {
        return 4 * length;
    }
}

class Circle : Shape
{
    float radius;

    public Circle(float radius)
    {
        this.radius = radius;
    }

    public override float getArea()
    {
        return 3.14f * radius * radius;
    }

    protected override float calculatorPerimeter()
    {
        return 2.00f * 3.14f * radius;
    }
}

class ConsoleApp
{
    static void Main()
    {
        Rectangle r1 = new Rectangle(10f, 20f);
        Square s1 = new Square(10f);
        Circle c1 = new Circle(10f);

        // We cannot create an instance of 'Shape' but we can use type datatype "Shape" for creating variables, arrays or lists
        List<Shape> shapes = new List<Shape>();
        shapes.Add(r1);
        shapes.Add(s1);
        shapes.Add(c1);

        foreach(Shape shape in shapes)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(shape.getArea());
        }
    }
}

1. Which keyword is used for making a class abstract?

2. Can an abstract class be instantiated?

Everything was clear?

Thanks for your feedback!

Section 5. Chapter 8