layout, title, folder, permalink, categories, tags
| layout | title | folder | permalink | categories | tags | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| pattern | Factory | factory | /patterns/factory/ | Creational |
|
Also known as
- Simple Factory
- Static Factory Method
Intent
Providing a static method encapsulated in a class called factory, in order to hide the implementation logic and makes client code focus on usage rather then initialization new objects.
Explanation
Real world example
Lets say we have a web application connected to SQLServer, but now we want to switch to Oracle. To do so without modifying existing source code, we need to implements Simple Factory pattern, in which a static method can be invoked to create connection to a given database.
Wikipedia says
Factory is an object for creating other objects – formally a factory is a function or method that returns objects of a varying prototype or class.
Programmatic Example
We have an interface "Car" and tow implementations "Ford" and "Ferrari".
/**
* Car interface.
*/
public interface Car {
public String getDescription();
}
/**
* Ford implementation.
*/
public class Ford implements Car {
static final String DESCRIPTION = "This is Ford.";
@Override
public String getDescription() {
return DESCRIPTION;
}
}
/**
* Ferrari implementation.
*/
public class Ferrari implements Car {
static final String DESCRIPTION = "This is Ferrari.";
@Override
public String getDescription() {
return DESCRIPTION;
}
}
Then we have the static method "getCar" to create car objects encapsulated in the factory class "CarSimpleFactory".
/**
* Factory of cars.
*/
public class CarSimpleFactory {
/**
* Enumeration for different types of cars.
*/
static enum CarType {
FORD, FERRARI
}
/**
* Factory method takes as parameter a car type and initiate the appropriate class.
*/
public static Car getCar(CarType type) {
switch (type) {
case FORD: return new Ford();
case FERRARI: return new Ferrari();
default: throw new IllegalArgumentException("Model not supported.");
}
}
}
Now on the client code we can create differentes types of cars(Ford or Ferrari) using the factory class.
Car car1 = CarSimpleFactory.getCar(CarSimpleFactory.CarType.FORD);
Car car2 = CarSimpleFactory.getCar(CarSimpleFactory.CarType.FERRARI);
LOGGER.info(car1.getDescription());
LOGGER.info(car2.getDescription());
Program output:
This is Ford.
This Ferrari.
Applicability
Use the Simple Factory pattern when you only care about the creation of a object, not how to create and manage it.
Disadvantages:
The code becomes more complicated than it should be.