Design Patterns – Factory Pattern
Category Programming Techniques
The Factory Method pattern is a pattern for creating objects, which is widely used in the JDK as well as in Spring and Struts frameworks;
The Factory Method pattern is based on "input" and is applied in situations between a superclass and multiple subclasses. This pattern transfers the responsibility of creating objects to the factory class;
Let's first learn how to apply the Factory Method pattern in Java and understand its advantages, and also note that the Factory Method pattern is widely used in the JDK;
The superclass can be an interface, an abstract class, or a parent class. In this example, the Factory Method pattern will be explained by overriding the toString() method;
Example
package com.journaldev.design.model;
public abstract class Computer {
public abstract String getRAM();
public abstract String getHDD();
public abstract String getCPU();
@Override
public String toString(){
return "RAM= " + this.getRAM() + ", HDD=" + this.getHDD() + ", CPU=" + this.getCPU();
}
}
Factory Design Pattern Subclasses
Assuming subclasses PC and Server implement Computer:
Example
package com.journaldev.design.model;
public class PC extends Computer {
private String ram;
private String hdd;
private String cpu;
public PC(String ram, String hdd, String cpu){
this.ram = ram;
this.hdd = hdd;
this.cpu = cpu;
}
@Override
public String getRAM() {
return this.ram;
}
@Override
public String getHDD() {
return this.hdd;
}
@Override
public String getCPU() {
return this.cpu;
}
}
Server also implements Computer:
Example
package com.journaldev.design.model;
public class Server extends Computer {
private String ram;
private String hdd;
private String cpu;
public Server(String ram, String hdd, String cpu){
this.ram = ram;
this.hdd = hdd;
this.cpu = cpu;
}
@Override
public String getRAM() {
return this.ram;
}
@Override
public String getHDD() {
return this.hdd;
}
@Override
public String getCPU() {
return this.cpu;
}
}
Factory Class
Now that there are multiple subclasses and a superclass, the next step is to create a factory class:
Example
package com.journaldev.design.factory;
import com.journaldev.design.model.Computer;
import com.journaldev.design.model.PC;
import com.journaldev.design.model.Server;
public class ComputerFactory {
public static Computer getComputer(String type, String ram, String hdd, String cpu){
if("PC".equalsIgnoreCase(type)) return new PC(ram, hdd, cpu);
else if("Server".equalsIgnoreCase(type)) return new Server(ram, hdd, cpu);
return null;
}
}
It is important to note:
The factory class can be a singleton, and getComputer can be static;
getComputer is a method of the factory class that returns different objects based on the same parameter types;
Next is a simple test client program that uses the above factory design pattern implementation.
Example
package com.journaldev.design.test;
import com.journaldev.design.abstractfactory.PCFactory;
import com.journaldev.design.abstractfactory.ServerFactory;
import com.journaldev.design.factory.ComputerFactory;
import com.journaldev.design.model.Computer;
public class TestFactory {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Computer pc = ComputerFactory.getComputer("pc", "2 GB", "500 GB", "2.4 GHz");
Computer server = ComputerFactory.getComputer("server", "16 GB", "1 TB", "2.9 GHz");
System.out.println("Factory PC Config::" + pc);
System.out.println("Factory Server Config::" + server);
}
}
Output:
Factory PC Config::RAM= 2 GB, HDD=500 GB, CPU=2.4 GHz
Factory Server Config::RAM= 16 GB, HDD=1 TB, CPU=2.9 GHz
Advantages of the Factory Design Pattern
Programming to an interface, reflecting the object-oriented philosophy;
The task of creating objects is transferred to the factory class;
Example of the Factory Design Pattern in JDK
- java.util.Calendar, ResourceBundle, and NumberFormat getInstance() use