Design Pattern: Factory Method

This pattern is used when we have a set of cases that create different classes at the same time. That is, we can abstract a base class which knows when to create, but not what to create. So, what we do is provide the base class with a method to create, and allow the subclasses to override the method.

I dislike the examples given in Wikipedia and GoF, as they do not seem to emphasize that the subclasses should all have a common aspect to their creation, and instead simply show a set of classes which fulfill a given interface differently. So take the following example with somewhat more dubiousness than naturally comes to my writing.

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>>> class Base(object):
…     def __init__(self, x):
…         self.x=x
…     def create(self):
…         return self.specificCreation(self.x)
… class S1(Base):
…     def specificCreation(self, x): return ‘S1′
… class S2(Base):
…     def specificCreation(self, x): return ‘S2 w/ %s’%(x)
… s1=S1(4)
… s1.create()
0: ‘S1′

>>> s2=S2(4)
>>> s2.create()
1: ‘S2 w/ 4′

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• This pattern is useful in framework code, where a user-defined class which implements a framework-defined interface can be inserted into the running of the framework.
• This is also useful when testing dangerous code (for instance, when reading from twitter).
• It is sometimes used without polymorphism as it gives a descriptive name to the creation and encapsulates it.