The Builder pattern

Shuanghui Luo
 Type & intent

• One of the Creational Pattern

• Intent:
 Separates the construction of a complex
object from its representation so that the
same construction process can create
different representations.
 Applicability
• The Builder pattern assembles a number of objects
in various ways depending on the data.

• Use the Builder pattern when

 the algorithm for creating a complex object should

be independent on the parts that make up the
object and how they're assembled.

 the construction process must allow different

representations for the object that's constructed.
 Structure (UML Model)
construct an object
using the Builder the complex object
interface under construction.

constructs
specifies an abstract
and assembles parts of the
interface for creating parts
product by implementing the Builder
of a Product object interface
 Participants
• Builder: specifies an abstract interface for creating parts
of a Product object.
• ConcreteBuilder:
 constructs and assembles parts of the product by
implementing the Builder interface.
 Defines and keeps track of the representation it creates.
 Provides an interface for retrieving the product.
• Director: constructs an object using the Builder
interface.
• Product: represents the complex object under
construction.
 Consequences
• Abstracts the construction implementation details
of a class type. It lets you vary the internal
representation of the product that it builds.

• Encapsulates the way in which objects are

constructed improving the modularity of a system.

• Finer control over the creation process, by letting a

builder class have multiple methods that are called
in a sequence to create an object.

• Each specific Builder is independent of any others.

 Example (1)
• A fathers-sons chooser

 We have a list of fathers in a Jlist

 We want to create a visual chooser for sons

of the selected father:

 A JPanel with a JList, if sons>3

 A JPanel with JCheckBoxes, if sons<=3

Example (2)
 Example (3)
public class MainJPanel extends JPanel implements javax.swing.event.ListSelectionListener
{
…
public void valueChanged(javax.swing.event.ListSelectionEvent e)
{

Get one of the GUIs

…
this.getSonsPanel().add(this.getCDirector().getChoiceUI(v));
this.getSonsPanel().validate();
this.getSonsPanel().repaint();

}
 Example (4)
public class ChoiceDirector
{
…
public javax.swing.JPanel getChoiceUI(java.util.Vector choices)
{
ChoiceAbstractBuilder p; The abstract builder

if (choices.size() <= 3)
{
p= new CheckBoxChoiceConcreteBuilder(choices);
}
else
Concrete builders
{
p= new ListChoiceConcreteBuilder(choices);
}

return p.getGUI();
}
Builds GUI
…
}
 References
• http://hillside.net/patterns

• http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~schmidt/patterns.html

• http://www.ciol.com/content/technology/sw_desg_patt/toc.asp

• http://www.research.umbc.edu/~tarr/cs491/fall00/cs491.html

• http://www.fh-
konstanz.de/studium/ze/cim/projekte/osefa/patterns/builder/intent.ht
m

• http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/bdudash/designpatterns/build
er.html