---
title: "Difference between Abstract classes and Interface in PHP"  
description: "Difference between Abstract classes and Interface in PHP"  
author: "Jonas Stuart"  
published: 2016-06-26  
updated: 2016-06-26  
canonical: https://www.mindstick.com/forum/34146/difference-between-abstract-classes-and-interface-in-php  
category: "php"  
tags: ["php", "abstract class"]  
reading_time: 1 minute  

---

# Difference between Abstract classes and Interface in PHP

Hi Experts\
[Please tell me](https://www.mindstick.com/forum/33900/please-tell-me-what-are-the-technique-to-content-optimization) what is a [difference between Abstract](https://www.mindstick.com/forum/158922/describe-the-difference-between-abstract-classes-and-interfaces-in-c-sharp) classes and [Interface](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/12101/interfaces-in-java-extending-interfaces) in [php](https://www.mindstick.com/articles/12149/php-constant-and-php-variables) i'm little [bit](https://www.mindstick.com/forum/33411/how-we-tell-programmatically-if-i-m-running-in-64-bit-jvm-or-32-bit-jvm) confused between them.\
Thanks

## Replies

### Reply by Mark Devid

**[Abstract classes](https://www.mindstick.com/forum/158818/what-are-abstract-classes-in-oop-and-when-are-they-used)**

Classes which cannot be instantiated and require subclasses to provide implementation for the abstract methods or in other words you cannot create object of abstract classes and these classes are used for inheritance purpose. Abstract classes can only inherited in your child class.\

## Interface

similar to abstract class. As we all know PHP does not support multiple inheritance. This problem is solved by interface in which you group classes that share some functionality that do not necessarily share a parent class.\
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