Components of the Strategy Design Pattern
1. Context
The Context is a class or object that holds a reference to a strategy object and delegates the task to it.
- It acts as the interface between the client and the strategy, providing a unified way to execute the task without knowing the details of how it’s done.
- The Context maintains a reference to a strategy object and calls its methods to perform the task, allowing for interchangeable strategies to be used.
2. Strategy Interface
The Strategy Interface is an interface or abstract class that defines a set of methods that all concrete strategies must implement.
- It serves as a contract, ensuring that all strategies adhere to the same set of rules and can be used interchangeably by the Context.
- By defining a common interface, the Strategy Interface allows for decoupling between the Context and the concrete strategies, promoting flexibility and modularity in the design.
3. Concrete Strategies
Concrete Strategies are the various implementations of the Strategy Interface. Each concrete strategy provides a specific algorithm or behavior for performing the task defined by the Strategy Interface.
- Concrete strategies encapsulate the details of their respective algorithms and provide a method for executing the task.
- They are interchangeable and can be selected and configured by the client based on the requirements of the task.
4. Client
The Client is responsible for selecting and configuring the appropriate strategy and providing it to the Context.
- It knows the requirements of the task and decides which strategy to use based on those requirements.
- The client creates an instance of the desired concrete strategy and passes it to the Context, enabling the Context to use the selected strategy to perform the task.
Strategy Design Pattern
The Strategy Design Pattern defines a family of algorithms, encapsulates each one, and makes them interchangeable, allowing clients to switch algorithms dynamically without altering the code structure.
Important Topics for the Strategy Design Pattern
- What is the Strategy Design Pattern?
- Characteristics of the Strategy Design Pattern?
- Components of the Strategy Design Pattern
- Communication between the Components
- Real-World Analogy of Strategy Design Pattern
- Strategy Design Pattern Example
- When to use the Strategy Design Pattern?
- When not to use the Strategy Design Pattern?
- Advantages of the Strategy Design Pattern
- Disadvantages of the Strategy Design Pattern