What is API

API stands for application program interfaceAn API is the interface implemented by an application which allows other applications to communicate with it. It is a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applicationsThe API specifies how software components should interact and are used when programming graphical user interface (GUI) components. A good API makes it easier to develop a program by providing all the building blocks. A programmer then puts the blocks together.

API's

Why Is It Needed? It is used for Communication Imagine Notepad couldn’t copy-paste to and from

Microsoft Word or Google Chrome Imagine having to type each and every time although the

text is already there in some other application. This is only one of the examples of communication

between applications and all this communication is made possible via APIs.

Types of APIs

There are different types of API's used for different purposes.These are for operating systems for Applications for websites

Windows, for example, has many API sets that are used by system hardware and applicationswhen you copy and paste text from one application to another, it is the API that allows that to work.

Most operating environments, such as MS-Windows, provide an API so that programmers can write applications consistent with the operating environment.

Today, APIs are also specified by websites.

For example, Amazon or eBay APIs allow developers to use the existing retail infrastructure to create specialized web stores. Third-party software developers also use Web APIs to create software solutions for end-users.

What Is It Really?You cannot run an API like you would run say a Notepad application. This is because APIs are generally invisible to the end users like you and me.APIs are carefully thought out pieces of code created by programmers for their applications that allow other applications to interact with their application.APIs are specially crafted to expose only chosen functionality and/or data while safeguarding other parts of the application which provides the interface. Creating an API is indeed time well spent, because ultimately the more applications that interact with your application the more popular it becomes.

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John pereless