Dart Abstract Class: Treating Concrete Classes as Abstract

In Dart, concrete classes are like ready-made tools with specific functions. They're already built and ready to use. But sometimes, we might not want to think about all the specific details of how they work. Instead, we just want to focus on what they can do without worrying about how they do it.

So, even though concrete classes have specific implementations, Dart allows us to use them in a way that hides those details.

Treating concrete classes as abstract in Dart means we can use them without needing to understand all the technical details of how they're built or how they function internally. We just focus on what they can do for us.

Example:

// Define a base class Animal
class Animal {
  void makeSound() { // Method to make a generic sound
    print('Some generic sound');
  }

  void eat() { // Method to eat
    print('Eating...');
  }
}

class Dog extends Animal {
  @override
  void makeSound() {
    print('Bark! Bark!');
  }

  void fetch() { // Additional method specific to Dog for fetching
    print('Fetching the ball');
  }
}
void main() {
  // Creating instances of Animal and Dog
  Animal animal = Animal();
  Dog dog = Dog();

  // Calling methods of the Animal class
  animal.makeSound(); // Output: Some generic sound
  animal.eat(); // Output: Eating...

  // Calling methods of the Dog class
  dog.makeSound(); // Output: Bark! Bark!
  dog.eat(); // Output: Eating...
  dog.fetch(); // Output: Fetching the ball

Benefits of Treating Concrete Classes as Abstract:

• Flexibility: Allows for flexible code design and adaptation to changing requirements.

• Modularity: Promotes modular code architecture by abstracting concrete class implementations.

• Code Reusability: Enhances code reuse and promotes polymorphism by using concrete classes interchangeably.