Software Design Principles: Design Patterns

What are Design Patterns?

Software Design Principles are fundamental to creating efficient, scalable, and maintainable applications. Design patterns, which are reusable solutions to common development problems, play a key role in this process. By applying these patterns, developers can improve the flexibility and modularity of their code, making it easier to adapt to future changes and ensuring software quality.

Design Pattern Classification

• Creational: Focus on creating objects in a flexible and efficient manner.
• Structural: Help define the relationship between classes and objects.
• Behavioral: Focus on communication and responsibility between objects.

Example of a Creational Pattern: Singleton in Python

The Singleton pattern ensures that a class has a single instance throughout the application.

class Singleton:
    _instance = None
    
    def __new__(cls):
        if cls._instance is None:
            cls._instance = super(Singleton, cls).__new__(cls)
        return cls._instance

singleton1 = Singleton()
singleton2 = Singleton()
print(singleton1 is singleton2)  # True

This code demonstrates how the Singleton pattern restricts the creation of multiple instances.

Conclusion

Design patterns are essential for efficient and structured software development. Their correct application facilitates code scalability and maintainability.