The Awesomeness Of Interfaces

It is a wonder how i went so long without the greatness of the vb.net Interfaces. We’ve all made classes that we about the same so we just made a base class to hold all of the like data and build from there. What about the times when the classes had absolutly nothing to do with each other but you need them to share common actions such as a run command or a poopsy command?

This is where the interface comes in. With an interface you can create your base actions or functions. then we can create our new class, code what we want to code with what ever names we want them to have then implement the connectors of the interface to those specific functions or events. here is some very basic code to get the idea. there are many ways to use or even abuse this so use with care

Module Module1

    Sub Main()

        Dim someclass As MyCoolInterface = InitInterface(MyClasses.Class1)

        AddHandler someclass.CoolEvent, AddressOf cooleventhandler

        someclass.run()
        someclass.Poopsy()

        someclass = InitInterface(MyClasses.Class2)

        AddHandler someclass.CoolEvent, AddressOf cooleventhandler

        someclass.run()
        someclass.Poopsy()

    End Sub

    Function InitInterface(ByVal cname As MyClasses) As MyCoolInterface
        If cname = MyClasses.Class1 Then
            Return New Class2
        ElseIf cname = MyClasses.Class2 Then
            Return New Class2
        Else
            'somehthings wrong
            Return Nothing
        End If
    End Function

    Public Sub cooleventhandler()
        'do something when event is triggered. 
    End Sub

End Module

Public Enum MyClasses
    Class1
    Class2
End Enum

Public Interface MyCoolInterface
    Sub run()
    Sub Poopsy()
    Event CoolEvent()
End Interface

Public Class Class1
    Implements MyCoolInterface

    Public Event CoolEvent() Implements MyCoolInterface.CoolEvent

    Public Sub Poopsy() Implements MyCoolInterface.Poopsy
        'do some stuff
        RaiseEvent CoolEvent()
    End Sub

    Public Sub run() Implements MyCoolInterface.run
        'do some more stuff
        RaiseEvent CoolEvent()
    End Sub
End Class

Public Class Class2
    Implements MyCoolInterface

    Public Event CoolEvent() Implements MyCoolInterface.CoolEvent

    Public Sub Poopsy() Implements MyCoolInterface.Poopsy
        'Do something else
        RaiseEvent CoolEvent()
    End Sub

    Public Sub run() Implements MyCoolInterface.run
        'do some more
        RaiseEvent CoolEvent()
    End Sub
End Class