Structural Design Patterns

Structural design patterns are a category of software design patterns that focus on how objects and classes are organized to for larger structures keeping systems flexible and efficient. These patterns help define relationships between entities while promoting reusability, scalability and maintainability.

Key Characteristics of Structural Design Patterns:

1. Encapsulation: Hides complexity from the client.

2. Reusability: Promotes modular and reusable components.

3. Flexibility: Reduces direct dependencies and allows for changes without breaking existing code.

4. Efficiency: Improves memory management and performance in large systems.

Examples

1. Facade Design Pattern

   Provides a simplified interface to a complex subsystem. It hides the complex interactions between multiple objects or components. This pattern improves usability by reducing dependencies on underlying components.

   The BLOG for Facade Pattern discusses the same in depth with a nice practical example.

2. Adapter Design Pattern

   This design pattern acts as a bridge between two incompatible interfaces.

   The BLOG for Adapter Pattern discusses the same in depth with a thorough practical example.

3. Flyweight Design Pattern

   Seeks to reduce memory usage by sharing common state and separating intrinsic and extrinsic states.

   The BLOG discusses the same.

4. Proxy Design Pattern

   Provides a proxy (intermediary) to control access to an object. The BLOG elucidates the same.

5. Decorator Design Pattern

   Used to dynamically extend the functionality of objects without modifying their original implementation. It allows wrapping objects with additional behaviour at runtime. The BLOG includes an interesting example.

6. Bridge Design Pattern

   It helps to separate an abstraction from its implementation, allowing both to evolve independently. It is useful when we have multiple dimensions of change in our system. The BLOG discusses the same.

7. Composite Design Pattern

   Last but not the least, this pattern allows us to build complex tree structures where individual objects and groups of objects are treated uniformly. The BLOG explains the same with a nice example.