In object-oriented programming and software engineering, the visitor design pattern is a way of separating an algorithm from an object structure on which it operates. A practical result of this separation is the ability to add new operations to existing object structures without modifying those structures. It is one way to easily follow the open/closed principle.
In essence, the visitor allows one to add new virtual functions to a family of classes without modifying the classes themselves; instead, one creates a visitor class that implements all of the appropriate specializations of the virtual function. The visitor takes the instance reference as input, and implements the goal through double dispatch.
interface CarElementVisitor {
void visit(Wheel wheel);
void visit(Engine engine);
void visit(Body body);
void visit(Car car);
}
interface CarElement {
void accept(CarElementVisitor visitor); // CarElements have to provide accept().
}
class Wheel implements CarElement {
private String name;
public Wheel(String name) {
this.name = name;
}
public String getName() {
return this.name;
}
public void accept(CarElementVisitor visitor) {
/*
* accept(CarElementVisitor) in Wheel implements
* accept(CarElementVisitor) in CarElement, so the call
* to accept is bound at run time. This can be considered
* the first dispatch. However, the decision to call
* visit(Wheel) (as opposed to visit(Engine) etc.) can be
* made during compile time since 'this' is known at compile
* time to be a Wheel. Moreover, each implementation of
* CarElementVisitor implements the visit(Wheel), which is
* another decision that is made at run time. This can be
* considered the second dispatch.
*/
visitor.visit(this);
}
}
class Engine implements CarElement {
public void accept(CarElementVisitor visitor) {
visitor.visit(this);
}
}
class Body implements CarElement {
public void accept(CarElementVisitor visitor) {
visitor.visit(this);
}
}
class Car implements CarElement {
CarElement[] elements;
public Car() {
//create new Array of elements
this.elements = new CarElement[] { new Wheel("front left"),
new Wheel("front right"), new Wheel("back left") ,
new Wheel("back right"), new Body(), new Engine() };
}
public void accept(CarElementVisitor visitor) {
for(CarElement elem : elements) {
elem.accept(visitor);
}
visitor.visit(this);
}
}
class CarElementPrintVisitor implements CarElementVisitor {
public void visit(Wheel wheel) {
System.out.println("Visiting " + wheel.getName() + " wheel");
}
public void visit(Engine engine) {
System.out.println("Visiting engine");
}
public void visit(Body body) {
System.out.println("Visiting body");
}
public void visit(Car car) {
System.out.println("Visiting car");
}
}
class CarElementDoVisitor implements CarElementVisitor {
public void visit(Wheel wheel) {
System.out.println("Kicking my " + wheel.getName() + " wheel");
}
public void visit(Engine engine) {
System.out.println("Starting my engine");
}
public void visit(Body body) {
System.out.println("Moving my body");
}
public void visit(Car car) {
System.out.println("Starting my car");
}
}
public class VisitorDemo {
static public void main(String[] args) {
Car car = new Car();
car.accept(new CarElementPrintVisitor());
car.accept(new CarElementDoVisitor());
}
}
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