C++ Programming/Code/Design Patterns/Behavioral Patterns

Chain of Responsibility
Chain of Responsibility pattern has the intent to avoid coupling the sender of a request to its receiver by giving more than one object a chance to handle the request. Chains the receiving objects and passes the requests along the chain until an object handles it.

Command
Command pattern is an Object behavioral pattern that decouples sender and receiver by encapsulating a request as an object, thereby letting you parameterize clients with different requests, queue or log requests, and support undo-able operations. It can also be thought as an object oriented equivalent of call back method.

Call Back: It is a function that is registered to be called at later point of time based on user actions.

Interpreter
Given a language, define a representation for its grammar along with an interpreter that uses the representation to interpret sentences in the language.

Iterator
The 'iterator' design pattern is used liberally within the STL for traversal of various containers. The full understanding of this will liberate a developer to create highly reusable and easily understandable data containers.

The basic idea of the iterator is that it permits the traversal of a container (like a pointer moving across an array). However, to get to the next element of a container, you need not know anything about how the container is constructed. This is the iterators job. By simply using the member functions provided by the iterator, you can move, in the intended order of the container, from the first element to the last element.

Let us start by considering a traditional single dimensional array with a pointer moving from the start to the end. This example assumes knowledge of pointer arithmetic. Note that the use of "it" or "itr," henceforth, is a short version of "iterator."

This code works very quickly for arrays, but how would we traverse a linked list, when the memory is not contiguous? Consider the implementation of a rudimentary linked list as follows:

This linked list has non-contiguous memory, and is therefore not a candidate for pointer arithmetic. And we do not want to expose the internals of the list to other developers, forcing them to learn them, and keeping us from changing it.

This is where the iterator comes in. The common interface makes learning the usage of the container easier, and hides the traversal logic from other developers.

Let us examine the code for the iterator, itself.

With this implementation, it is now possible, without knowledge of the size of the container or how its data is organized, to move through each element in order, manipulating or simply accessing the data. This is done through the accessors in the MyIntLList class, Begin and End.

The following program gives the implementation of an iterator design pattern with a generic template:

Console output: ________________Iterator with int______________________________________ 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ________________Iterator with Class Money______________________________ 100 1000 10000 ________________Set Iterator with Class Name___________________________ Amt Bmt Cmt Qmt

Mediator
Define an object that encapsulates how a set of objects interact. Mediator promotes loose coupling by keeping objects from referring to each other explicitly, and it lets you vary their interaction independently.

Memento
Without violating encapsulation the Memento Pattern will capture and externalize an object’s internal state so that the object can be restored to this state later. Though the Gang of Four uses friend as a way to implement this pattern it is not the best design. It can also be implemented using PIMPL (pointer to implementation or opaque pointer). Best Use case is 'Undo-Redo' in an editor.

The Originator (the object to be saved) creates a snap-shot of itself as a Memento object, and passes that reference to the Caretaker object. The Caretaker object keeps the Memento until such a time as the Originator may want to revert to a previous state as recorded in the Memento object.

See memoize for an old-school example of this pattern.

Observer
The Observer Pattern defines a one-to-many dependency between objects so that when one object changes state, all its dependents are notified and updated automatically.


 * Problem : In one place or many places in the application we need to be aware about a system event or an application state change. We'd like to have a standard way of subscribing to listening for system events and a standard way of notifying the interested parties. The notification should be automated after an interested party subscribed to the system event or application state change. There also should be a way to unsubscribe.


 * Forces : Observers and observables probably should be represented by objects. The observer objects will be notified by the observable objects.


 * Solution : After subscribing the listening objects will be notified by a way of method call.

State
The State Pattern allows an object to alter its behavior when its internal state changes. The object will appear as having changed its class.

Strategy
Defines a family of algorithms, encapsulates each one, and make them interchangeable. Strategy lets the algorithm vary independently from clients who use it.

Template Method
By defining a skeleton of an algorithm in an operation, deferring some steps to subclasses, the Template Method lets subclasses redefine certain steps of that algorithm without changing the algorithm's structure.

Visitor
The Visitor Pattern will represent an operation to be performed on the elements of an object structure by letting you define a new operation without changing the classes of the elements on which it operates.

Model-View-Controller (MVC)
A pattern often used by applications that need the ability to maintain multiple views of the same data. The model-view-controller pattern was until recently a very common pattern especially for graphic user interlace programming, it splits the code in 3 pieces. The model, the view, and the controller.

The Model is the actual data representation (for example, Array vs Linked List) or other objects representing a database. The View is an interface to reading the model or a fat client GUI. The Controller provides the interface of changing or modifying the data, and then selecting the "Next Best View" (NBV).

Newcomers will probably see this "MVC" model as wasteful, mainly because you are working with many extra objects at runtime, when it seems like one giant object will do. But the secret to the MVC pattern is not writing the code, but in maintaining it, and allowing people to modify the code without changing much else. Also, keep in mind, that different developers have different strengths and weaknesses, so team building around MVC is easier. Imagine a View Team that is responsible for great views, a Model Team that knows a lot about data, and a Controller Team that see the big picture of application flow, handing requests, working with the model, and selecting the most appropriate next view for that client.

For example: A naive central database can be organized using only a "model", for example, a straight array. However, later on, it may be more applicable to use a linked list. All array accesses will have to be remade into their respective Linked List form (for example, you would change myarray[5] into mylist.at(5) or whatever is equivalent in the language you use).

Well, if we followed the MVC pattern, the central database would be accessed using some sort of a function, for example, myarray.at(5). If we change the model from an array to a linked list, all we have to do is change the view with the model, and the whole program is changed. Keep the interface the same but change the underpinnings of it. This would allow us to make optimizations more freely and quickly than before.

One of the great advantages of the Model-View-Controller Pattern is obviously the ability to reuse the application's logic (which is implemented in the model) when implementing a different view. A good example is found in web development, where a common task is to implement an external API inside of an existing piece of software. If the MVC pattern has cleanly been followed, this only requires modification to the controller, which can have the ability to render different types of views dependent on the content type requested by the user agent.