Factory Method Pattern - sivakrsna/DesignPatterns GitHub Wiki

The Factory Method Pattern defines an interface for creating an object, but lets subclasses decide which class to instantiate. Factory Method lets a class defer instantiation to subclasses.

Wiki

• The factory method pattern is a creational pattern that uses factory methods to deal with the problem of creating objects without having to specify the exact class of the object that will be created.
• This is done by creating objects by calling a factory method—either specified in an interface and implemented by child classes, or implemented in a base class and optionally overridden by derived classes—rather than by calling a constructor.

Example

public interface Shape {
   void draw();
}

public class Rectangle implements Shape {

   @Override
   public void draw() {
      System.out.println("Inside Rectangle::draw() method.");
   }
}

public class ShapeFactory {
	
   //use getShape method to get object of type shape 
   public Shape getShape(String shapeType){
      if(shapeType == null){
         return null;
      }		
      if(shapeType.equalsIgnoreCase("CIRCLE")){
         return new Circle();
         
      } else if(shapeType.equalsIgnoreCase("RECTANGLE")){
         return new Rectangle();
         
      } else if(shapeType.equalsIgnoreCase("SQUARE")){
         return new Square();
      }
      
      return null;
   }
}

public class FactoryPatternDemo {

   public static void main(String[] args) {
      ShapeFactory shapeFactory = new ShapeFactory();

      //get an object of Circle and call its draw method.
      Shape shape1 = shapeFactory.getShape("CIRCLE");

      //call draw method of Circle
      shape1.draw();

      //get an object of Rectangle and call its draw method.
      Shape shape2 = shapeFactory.getShape("RECTANGLE");

      //call draw method of Rectangle
      shape2.draw();

      //get an object of Square and call its draw method.
      Shape shape3 = shapeFactory.getShape("SQUARE");

      //call draw method of circle
      shape3.draw();
   }
}