Analysis

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Analysis

Pattern comparison

Reviewing 3 patterns.

Criteria
creationalAbstract FactoryView pattern
structuralAdapterView pattern
structuralFlyweightView pattern
Basics
Categorycreationalstructuralstructural
SummaryProvide an interface for creating families of related objects without specifying their concrete classes.Convert the interface of a class or module into another interface clients expect.—
IntentProvide an interface for creating families of related objects without specifying their concrete classes.Allow incompatible interfaces to work together without changing the consuming code.Use sharing to support large numbers of fine-grained objects efficiently by separating shared intrinsic state from per-object extrinsic state.
Decision factors
ProblemClient code needs to create families of related objects, but hardcoding concrete classes makes the code rigid and hard to swap.A client needs to talk to a legacy class or external service whose interface does not match the rest of the codebase.A system creates a large number of similar objects, but storing all of their state separately uses too much memory.
Tradeoffs
  • Adds an extra abstraction layer.
  • Can overcomplicate simple object creation.
  • Makes family-wide swapping and consistency much easier.
  • Adds an extra layer of indirection.
  • Can hide useful vendor-specific capabilities if overused.
  • Keeps integration code isolated from core domain logic.
  • Adds complexity because state must be split into shared and unshared parts
  • Can be harder to understand when many objects depend on an external context
Practical fit
Languages
  • typescript
  • java
  • python
  • react
  • angular
  • csharp
  • dotnet
  • typescript
  • java
  • python
  • go
  • csharp
  • dotnet
  • react
  • angular
  • react-native
  • typescript
  • java
  • python
  • angular
  • react
  • react-native
  • csharp
  • dotnet
Platforms
  • applications
  • ui systems
  • integration layers
  • applications
  • apis
  • service layers
  • integrations
  • Web
  • Backend
  • Mobile
  • UI kits
  • Cross-platform systems
Integration notesAbstract Factory is especially useful when your app must produce matching sets of related objects for a theme, provider, platform, or pipeline.Adapters are useful when exposing a stable boundary over a legacy API, vendor SDK, or payload format mismatch.Flyweight is useful when thousands or millions of similar objects need to be represented efficiently, such as trees, glyphs, tiles, or UI tokens.