In this series of articles, we will see how Microsoft has used GOF design patterns in .Net framework library. Let start with Absract factory Pattern....
Introduction Of abstract Factory Pattern
Abstract factory pattern is a software design pattern. It provides an abstract interface for creating instance of families of related object without providing actual implemented class name. So client can create/initiate concrate instance of the classes through the abstarct interface and client will only aware of the abstract interface which the abstract factory is returning. So this pattern helps if client is unaware of which object to construct at when and can work against the abstarct interface
Example code
See below code which returns the factory instance of SQLClientFactory and client just need to pass the name of the provider to initial to the GetFactory Method which returns SQLClientFactory instance. In next statement, using factory instance's CreateCommand Method returns SQLCommand type as database specific command type.
using System.Data.SqlClient;
using System.Data;
using System.Data.Common;
static void Main(string[] args)
class Program{
{
DbProviderFactory factory = DbProviderFactories.GetFactory("System.Data.SqlClient");
DbCommand cmd = factory.CreateCommand();
Console.WriteLine("Provider Factory Instance Name :" + factory.GetType());
Console.WriteLine("Abstracted Command type name : " + cmd.GetType());
Console.Read();
}
}
Output of the program
.Net Framework Factory Implemented classes
if you search the factory/factories word in object browser window, then you will see there are lot of places where abstract factory pattern is used.
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