What is the meaning of API in a simple understanding ?

Question

API

Answer 1

API is (application program interface) it essentially allows programs to talk together. Like writing a Windows terminal command in notepad and having it execute the stricpt via notepad.

Hope that cleared it up🖒

Answer 2

API stands for "Application Programming Interface", in one word: Connectivity.

API is the "messenger" that takes requests and tells the system what you want to do and then returns the response back to you.

Say you are in a coffee shop, the API would be the waiter. The kitchen is the part of the system which will prepare your food. Who would be the critical link to communicate your order to the kitchen? Exactly, the waiter, he is the messenger and who will deliver the food back to your table.

A real life example: An online travel service that shows information from many different airlines. The travel service interacts with the airlines' APIs, these APIs are the interfaces that can be asked by the online travel service to get information from the airlines' system over the internet to book seats. It takes the airlines response to your request and delivers it right back to the online travel service which then shows it to you.

Answer 3

The API is a library of available Java classes, packages and interfaces. The three API types are as follows:

Official Java core API, which is bundled with the JDK download
Optional official Java APIs, which may be downloaded if needed
Unofficial APIs, which are third-party APIs that may be downloaded from source websites

The APIs help programmers determine class or package functions, parameters and other necessary information.
The official API includes packages, e.g., applet packages, graphics and GUI swing packages, input/output (IO) packages and Abstract Windows Toolkit (AWT), among others.

There are three frames when an API starts, as follows:

The first frame shows all API components (classes and packages).When a particular package is selected,
the second frame shows all interfaces, classes and exceptions of that particular package.
The third and primary frame provides an overview of all of API packages, which can be expanded in the main frame to show the index, class hierarchy and help sections.

Answer 4

Yeah @G. Keng gave a nice example right there 😉 I linked my SoloLearn account with my Facebook account, so it was Facebook's API being used. These are application packages with external dependencies.

Basically, an API contains resource classes used by apps and defines application permissions for system features, this way a programmer can make it communicate with the devices' built in functions, add more web apps' funcionality, etc.

@Joe, I believe API is different than SDK.
API is an interface (a set of classes, data structures, etc. a way for external systems to interact with it) and SDK is more like a tool (a wrapper around APIs) to build stuff with it.

Answer 5

Thank you. So Android SDK for example is an API?

Answer 6

if u signed up to sololearn using Google account or any other without typing in your informations (name, username, confirm password etc.) then there you have it. sololearn used Google API to sign you u up. or maybe not you. but I used it.

Answer 7

@Mancia thanks I've gain a lot from your post on API

Answer 8

API is a API