Analysis
Compare patterns
Evaluate design patterns side by side across intent, tradeoffs, languages, and integration fit.
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Analysis
Pattern comparison
Reviewing 3 patterns.
| Criteria | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Basics | |||
| Category | structural | structural | behavioral |
| Summary | Convert the interface of a class or module into another interface clients expect. | Compose objects into tree structures to represent part-whole hierarchies and let clients work with individual and composite objects through the same interface. | — |
| Intent | Allow incompatible interfaces to work together without changing the consuming code. | Compose objects into tree structures to represent part-whole hierarchies and let clients work with individual and composite objects through the same interface. | Encapsulate a family of algorithms or behaviors behind a common contract so they can be selected and swapped cleanly. |
| Decision factors | |||
| Problem | A client needs to talk to a legacy class or external service whose interface does not match the rest of the codebase. | A system needs to treat individual objects and groups of objects uniformly, but the hierarchy becomes difficult to manage with separate code paths. | A system needs to switch between interchangeable behaviors without hardcoding branching logic everywhere. |
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| Practical fit | |||
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| Integration notes | Adapters are useful when exposing a stable boundary over a legacy API, vendor SDK, or payload format mismatch. | Composite is useful when a hierarchy of nested objects should expose a common interface, such as files and folders, menus and submenus, org charts, widget trees, or scene graphs. | Strategies can cross codebases through shared contracts, API selection rules, or runtime configuration. |