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How to implement the factory method pattern in C correctly

February 15, 2025

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How to implement the factory method pattern in C correctly

Creating versatile and maintainable entity-oriented codification frequently hinges connected selecting the correct plan patterns. The Mill Technique form, a almighty creational form successful C++, supplies an elegant resolution for entity instauration, selling free coupling and extensibility. This station dives heavy into the Mill Methodology form, exploring its implementation, advantages, and existent-planet purposes. We’ll equip you with the cognition to efficaciously leverage this form successful your C++ tasks.

Knowing the Mill Methodology Form

Astatine its center, the Mill Technique form defines an interface for creating objects however defers the existent instantiation to subclasses. This permits you to present fresh entity sorts with out modifying current codification, adhering to the unfastened/closed rule. Alternatively of straight instantiating factual courses, you call a mill methodology, which handles the entity instauration procedure. This abstraction promotes flexibility and makes your codification much adaptable to early adjustments. Ideate a script wherever you demand to activity aggregate database varieties. Alternatively of hardcoding entity instauration for all database, a mill technique tin dynamically make the due database entity primarily based connected configuration oregon person enter.

This form differs somewhat from the Summary Mill form, which offers with households of associated objects. The Mill Technique focuses connected creating azygous objects piece providing flexibility done inheritance. It’s peculiarly utile once dealing with entity hierarchies oregon once you expect including fresh entity sorts complete clip.

Implementing the Mill Technique successful C++

Fto’s exemplify with a applicable illustration. See a crippled with assorted quality sorts: Warrior, Mage, and Rogue. Alternatively of straight creating these characters, we’ll usage a mill technique:

cpp see // Merchandise interface people Quality { national: digital void onslaught() = zero; digital ~Quality() = default; }; // Factual Merchandise people Warrior : national Quality { national: void onslaught() override { / Warrior onslaught logic / } }; people Mage : national Quality { national: void onslaught() override { / Mage onslaught logic / } }; // Creator people people CharacterFactory { national: digital std::unique_ptr createCharacter() = zero; digital ~CharacterFactory() = default; }; // Factual Creators people WarriorFactory : national CharacterFactory { national: std::unique_ptr createCharacter() override { instrument std::make_unique(); } }; people MageFactory : national CharacterFactory { national: std::unique_ptr createCharacter() override { instrument std::make_unique(); } }; int chief() { std::unique_ptr mill = std::make_unique(); std::unique_ptr warrior = mill->createCharacter(); warrior->onslaught(); instrument zero; } This demonstrates a basal implementation. Arsenic your crippled expands, including fresh quality sorts lone requires creating fresh factual merchandise and creator courses with out altering present performance.

Advantages of Utilizing the Mill Methodology

The Mill Methodology presents respective cardinal advantages. It decouples entity instauration from case codification, selling maintainability and flexibility. Introducing fresh entity sorts turns into simpler, adhering to the unfastened/closed rule. The codification besides turns into much testable, arsenic you tin easy mock oregon stub mill strategies for part investigating. This attack besides promotes codification reusability and reduces codification duplication, arsenic entity instauration logic is centralized successful the mill strategies.

  • Decoupling and Maintainability
  • Unfastened/Closed Rule Adherence

Existent-Planet Purposes

The Mill Technique is wide utilized successful frameworks and libraries, peculiarly successful eventualities requiring entity instauration based mostly connected configuration oregon person enter. Examples see GUI toolkits, database connections, and crippled improvement. See a transverse-level exertion. The Mill Technique tin make level-circumstantial UI components with out exposing level-circumstantial codification to the case. This abstraction simplifies improvement and enhances portability.

β€œPlan Patterns: Parts of Reusable Entity-Oriented Package” by Gamma et al. (the “Pack of 4”) is a seminal activity successful package plan and discusses the Mill Methodology extensively. It gives invaluable insights and applicable examples showcasing its purposes.

  1. Place the objects you privation to make done the mill.
  2. Specify a communal interface for these objects.
  3. Make a mill people with a methodology for creating objects.

Champion Practices and Concerns

Once implementing the Mill Technique, see utilizing astute pointers similar std::unique_ptr oregon std::shared_ptr for managing entity lifetimes. This helps forestall representation leaks and simplifies assets direction. Besides, guarantee the mill technique’s interface is fine-outlined and offers broad semantics for entity instauration. Appropriate naming conventions for mill strategies and courses are important for readability and maintainability. Piece the Mill Technique is a almighty form, it’s crucial to debar overusing it. Elemental entity instauration eventualities mightiness not warrant the complexity of a mill technique.

  • Usage astute pointers for representation direction.
  • Travel broad naming conventions.

For much connected C++ champion practices, seat this adjuvant assets: C++ FAQ.

Infographic Placeholder: Ocular cooperation of the Mill Methodology Form construction.

Larn much astir plan patterns.FAQ

Q: Once ought to I usage the Mill Technique?

A: Usage the Mill Methodology once you demand to decouple entity instauration from case codification, expect including fresh entity sorts, oregon necessitate flexibility successful entity instantiation.

The Mill Methodology form is a invaluable implement for penning versatile and maintainable C++ codification. By decoupling entity instauration, you empower your codification to accommodate to altering necessities and advance cleanable plan ideas. Knowing its nuances and appropriate implementation methods tin importantly better the choice and extensibility of your package initiatives. Research additional sources similar Tutorials Component and Refactoring Guru to deepen your knowing. Commencement incorporating the Mill Technique into your C++ initiatives to education its advantages firsthand. Dive into illustration codification and experimentation with antithetic implementations to solidify your grasp of this indispensable plan form. The cardinal is to equilibrium its powerfulness with pragmatic exertion, guaranteeing it genuinely enhances your codebase.

Question & Answer :
Location’s this 1 happening successful C++ which has been making maine awareness uncomfortable for rather a agelong clip, due to the fact that I actually don’t cognize however to bash it, equal although it sounds elemental:

However bash I instrumentality Mill Methodology successful C++ accurately?

End: to brand it imaginable to let the case to instantiate any entity utilizing mill strategies alternatively of the entity’s constructors, with out unacceptable penalties and a show deed.

By “Mill technique form”, I average some static mill strategies wrong an entity oregon strategies outlined successful different people, oregon planetary capabilities. Conscionable mostly “the conception of redirecting the average manner of instantiation of people X to anyplace other than the constructor”.

Fto maine skim done any imaginable solutions which I person idea of.


zero) Don’t brand factories, brand constructors.

This sounds good (and so frequently the champion resolution), however is not a broad treatment. Archetypal of each, location are instances once entity operation is a project analyzable adequate to warrant its extraction to different people. However equal placing that information speech, equal for elemental objects utilizing conscionable constructors frequently received’t bash.

The easiest illustration I cognize is a 2-D Vector people. Truthful elemental, but difficult. I privation to beryllium capable to concept it some from some Cartesian and polar coordinates. Evidently, I can not bash:

struct Vec2 { Vec2(interval x, interval y); Vec2(interval space, interval magnitude); // not a legitimate overload! // ... }; 

My earthy manner of reasoning is past:

struct Vec2 { static Vec2 fromLinear(interval x, interval y); static Vec2 fromPolar(interval space, interval magnitude); // ... }; 

Which, alternatively of constructors, leads maine to utilization of static mill strategies… which basically means that I’m implementing the mill form, successful any manner (“the people turns into its ain mill”). This seems to be good (and would lawsuit this peculiar lawsuit), however fails successful any instances, which I’m going to depict successful component 2. Bash publication connected.

different lawsuit: making an attempt to overload by 2 opaque typedefs of any API (specified arsenic GUIDs of unrelated domains, oregon a GUID and a bitfield), varieties semantically wholly antithetic (truthful - successful explanation - legitimate overloads) however which really bend retired to beryllium the aforesaid happening - similar unsigned ints oregon void pointers.


  1. The Java Manner

Java has it elemental, arsenic we lone person dynamic-allotted objects. Making a mill is arsenic trivial arsenic:

people FooFactory { national Foo createFooInSomeWay() { // tin beryllium a static technique arsenic fine, // if we don't demand the mill to supply its ain entity semantics // and conscionable service arsenic a radical of strategies instrument fresh Foo(any, args); } } 

Successful C++, this interprets to:

people FooFactory { national: Foo* createFooInSomeWay() { instrument fresh Foo(any, args); } }; 

Chill? Frequently, so. However past- this forces the person to lone usage dynamic allocation. Static allocation is what makes C++ analyzable, however is besides what frequently makes it almighty. Besides, I accept that location be any targets (key phrase: embedded) which don’t let for dynamic allocation. And that doesn’t connote that the customers of these platforms similar to compose cleanable OOP.

Anyhow, doctrine speech: Successful the broad lawsuit, I don’t privation to unit the customers of the mill to beryllium restrained to dynamic allocation.


  1. Instrument-by-worth

Fine, truthful we cognize that 1) is chill once we privation dynamic allocation. Wherefore received’t we adhd static allocation connected apical of that?

people FooFactory { national: Foo* createFooInSomeWay() { instrument fresh Foo(any, args); } Foo createFooInSomeWay() { instrument Foo(any, args); } }; 

What? We tin’t overload by the instrument kind? Ohio, of class we tin’t. Truthful fto’s alteration the methodology names to indicate that. And sure, I’ve written the invalid codification illustration supra conscionable to emphasis however overmuch I dislike the demand to alteration the methodology sanction, for illustration due to the fact that we can’t instrumentality a communication-agnostic mill plan decently present, since we person to alteration names - and all person of this codification volition demand to retrieve that quality of the implementation from the specification.

people FooFactory { national: Foo* createDynamicFooInSomeWay() { instrument fresh Foo(any, args); } Foo createFooObjectInSomeWay() { instrument Foo(any, args); } }; 

Fine… location we person it. It’s disfigured, arsenic we demand to alteration the technique sanction. It’s imperfect, since we demand to compose the aforesaid codification doubly. However erstwhile completed, it plant. Correct?

Fine, normally. However generally it does not. Once creating Foo, we really be connected the compiler to bash the instrument worth optimisation for america, due to the fact that the C++ modular is benevolent adequate for the compiler distributors not to specify once volition the entity created successful-spot and once volition it beryllium copied once returning a impermanent entity by worth successful C++. Truthful if Foo is costly to transcript, this attack is dangerous.

And what if Foo is not copiable astatine each? Fine, doh. (Line that successful C++17 with assured transcript elision, not-being-copiable is nary job anymore for the codification supra)

Decision: Making a mill by returning an entity is so a resolution for any instances (specified arsenic the 2-D vector antecedently talked about), however inactive not a broad alternative for constructors.


three) 2-form operation

Different happening that person would most likely travel ahead with is separating the content of entity allocation and its initialisation. This normally outcomes successful codification similar this:

people Foo { national: Foo() { // bare oregon about bare } // ... }; people FooFactory { national: void createFooInSomeWay(Foo& foo, any, args); }; void clientCode() { Foo staticFoo; auto_ptr<Foo> dynamicFoo = fresh Foo(); FooFactory mill; mill.createFooInSomeWay(&staticFoo); mill.createFooInSomeWay(&dynamicFoo.acquire()); // ... } 

1 whitethorn deliberation it plant similar a attraction. The lone terms we wage for successful our codification…

Since I’ve written each of this and near this arsenic the past, I essential dislike it excessively. :) Wherefore?

Archetypal of each… I sincerely dislike the conception of 2-form operation and I awareness blameworthy once I usage it. If I plan my objects with the assertion that “if it exists, it is successful legitimate government”, I awareness that my codification is safer and little mistake-susceptible. I similar it that manner.

Having to driblet that normal AND altering the plan of my entity conscionable for the intent of making mill of it is.. fine, unwieldy.

I cognize that the supra received’t convert galore group, truthful fto’s maine springiness any much coagulated arguments. Utilizing 2-form operation, you can’t:

  • initialise const oregon mention associate variables,
  • walk arguments to basal people constructors and associate entity constructors.

And most likely location might beryllium any much drawbacks which I tin’t deliberation of correct present, and I don’t equal awareness peculiarly obliged to since the supra slug factors convert maine already.

Truthful: not equal adjacent to a bully broad resolution for implementing a mill.


Conclusions:

We privation to person a manner of entity instantiation which would:

  • let for single instantiation careless of allocation,
  • springiness antithetic, significant names to operation strategies (frankincense not relying connected by-statement overloading),
  • not present a important show deed and, ideally, a important codification bloat deed, particularly astatine case broadside,
  • beryllium broad, arsenic successful: imaginable to beryllium launched for immoderate people.

I accept I person confirmed that the methods I person talked about don’t fulfil these necessities.

Immoderate hints? Delight supply maine with a resolution, I don’t privation to deliberation that this communication received’t let maine to decently instrumentality specified a trivial conception.

Archetypal of each, location are instances once entity operation is a project analyzable adequate to warrant its extraction to different people.

I accept this component is incorrect. The complexity doesn’t truly substance. The relevance is what does. If an entity tin beryllium constructed successful 1 measure (not similar successful the builder form), the constructor is the correct spot to bash it. If you truly demand different people to execute the occupation, past it ought to beryllium a helper people that is utilized from the constructor anyhow.

Vec2(interval x, interval y); Vec2(interval space, interval magnitude); // not a legitimate overload! 

Location is an casual workaround for this:

struct Cartesian { inline Cartesian(interval x, interval y): x(x), y(y) {} interval x, y; }; struct Polar { inline Polar(interval space, interval magnitude): space(space), magnitude(magnitude) {} interval space, magnitude; }; Vec2(const Cartesian &cartesian); Vec2(const Polar &polar); 

The lone drawback is that it seems a spot verbose:

Vec2 v2(Vec2::Cartesian(three.0f, four.0f)); 

However the bully happening is that you tin instantly seat what coordinate kind you’re utilizing, and astatine the aforesaid clip you don’t person to concern astir copying. If you privation copying, and it’s costly (arsenic confirmed by profiling, of class), you whitethorn want to usage thing similar Qt’s shared lessons to debar copying overhead.

Arsenic for the allocation kind, the chief ground to usage the mill form is normally polymorphism. Constructors tin’t beryllium digital, and equal if they might, it wouldn’t brand overmuch awareness. Once utilizing static oregon stack allocation, you tin’t make objects successful a polymorphic manner due to the fact that the compiler wants to cognize the direct measurement. Truthful it plant lone with pointers and references. And returning a mention from a mill doesn’t activity excessively, due to the fact that piece an entity technically tin beryllium deleted by mention, it might beryllium instead complicated and bug-inclined, seat Is the pattern of returning a C++ mention adaptable, evil? for illustration. Truthful pointers are the lone happening that’s near, and that consists of astute pointers excessively. Successful another phrases, factories are about utile once utilized with dynamic allocation, truthful you tin bash issues similar this:

people Summary { national: digital void bash() = zero; }; people Mill { national: Summary *make(); }; Mill f; Summary *a = f.make(); a->bash(); 

Successful another instances, factories conscionable aid to lick insignificant issues similar these with overloads you person talked about. It would beryllium good if it was imaginable to usage them successful a single manner, however it doesn’t wounded overmuch that it is most likely intolerable.