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author | chriseth <chris@ethereum.org> | 2019-01-08 07:00:24 +0800 |
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committer | GitHub <noreply@github.com> | 2019-01-08 07:00:24 +0800 |
commit | cb4e5936fdf1a7d22442c6da08b7ac3a4659f104 (patch) | |
tree | 1380d136ba242dc1f028569572d00d7b79e5c75b /docs/contracts | |
parent | 139dd9fb24b9b71917bbc9c7e5c540a66a4baa81 (diff) | |
parent | f69af050cb54710d527a2601a376da11c9444755 (diff) | |
download | dexon-solidity-cb4e5936fdf1a7d22442c6da08b7ac3a4659f104.tar.gz dexon-solidity-cb4e5936fdf1a7d22442c6da08b7ac3a4659f104.tar.zst dexon-solidity-cb4e5936fdf1a7d22442c6da08b7ac3a4659f104.zip |
Merge pull request #5749 from ethereum/docs-split-abstract
[DOCS] Split Abstract Contracts docs to new file
Diffstat (limited to 'docs/contracts')
-rw-r--r-- | docs/contracts/abstract-contracts.rst | 43 |
1 files changed, 43 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/docs/contracts/abstract-contracts.rst b/docs/contracts/abstract-contracts.rst new file mode 100644 index 00000000..87340733 --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/contracts/abstract-contracts.rst @@ -0,0 +1,43 @@ +.. index:: ! contract;abstract, ! abstract contract + +.. _abstract-contract: + +****************** +Abstract Contracts +****************** + +Contracts are marked as abstract when at least one of their functions lacks an implementation as in the following example (note that the function declaration header is terminated by ``;``):: + + pragma solidity >=0.4.0 <0.6.0; + + contract Feline { + function utterance() public returns (bytes32); + } + +Such contracts cannot be compiled (even if they contain implemented functions alongside non-implemented functions), but they can be used as base contracts:: + + pragma solidity >=0.4.0 <0.6.0; + + contract Feline { + function utterance() public returns (bytes32); + } + + contract Cat is Feline { + function utterance() public returns (bytes32) { return "miaow"; } + } + +If a contract inherits from an abstract contract and does not implement all non-implemented functions by overriding, it will itself be abstract. + +Note that a function without implementation is different from a :ref:`Function Type <function_types>` even though their syntax looks very similar. + +Example of function without implementation (a function declaration):: + + function foo(address) external returns (address); + +Example of a Function Type (a variable declaration, where the variable is of type ``function``):: + + function(address) external returns (address) foo; + +Abstract contracts decouple the definition of a contract from its implementation providing better extensibility and self-documentation and +facilitating patterns like the `Template method <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template_method_pattern>`_ and removing code duplication. +Abstract contracts are useful in the same way that defining methods in an interface is useful. It is a way for the designer of the abstract contract to say "any child of mine must implement this method". |