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For 2023 (and 2024 ...) - we are now fully retired from IT training.
We have made many, many friends over 25 years of teaching about Python, Tcl, Perl, PHP, Lua, Java, C and C++ - and MySQL, Linux and Solaris/SunOS too. Our training notes are now very much out of date, but due to upward compatability most of our examples remain operational and even relevant ad you are welcome to make us if them "as seen" and at your own risk.

Lisa and I (Graham) now live in what was our training centre in Melksham - happy to meet with former delegates here - but do check ahead before coming round. We are far from inactive - rather, enjoying the times that we are retired but still healthy enough in mind and body to be active!

I am also active in many other area and still look after a lot of web sites - you can find an index ((here))
What is a factory?

A Factory is somewhere that takes raw material, and converts into objects of some value. And so it is in Object Oriented Programming, where a "factory method" takes a chunk of raw material and makes an object out of it. It may differ from a constructor in that we may not know what type of object we're actually going to make when we call it!

Let's see an example (in PHP). Here's some source code which takes each of the lines from an incoming data file and passes them in turn into a factory method. The factory return an object each time it's called, which is stored into an array called options.

$southbound = file("southbound.txt");
$options = array();
foreach ($southbound as $lyne) {
   array_push($options,pubtrans::myfactory($lyne));
   }


From that application code, you can't tell what types of objects have been set up, nor can you tell how the code has decided which to set up - it's all encapsulated (hidden) within the factory.

Here's the code within the pubtrans class / namespace:

static function myfactory($lyne) {
  list($dep_t,$capa,$run_t,$dest,$wotsit) = explode(" ",trim($lyne));
  if ($wotsit == "train") {
    return (new train($dep_t,$capa,$run_t,$dest));
  } else {
    return (new bus($dep_t,$capa,$run_t,$dest));
  }
}


... and from that you can see that we're making either a train or a bus (they are probably classes that are subclasses of pubtrans, but not necessarily so).

The complete example is online - [source code] and [running example]. The data is [here].

(written 2010-04-26)

 
Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles
Q908 - Object Orientation and General technical topics - Object Orientation: Design Patterns
  [485] North, Norther and Northest - PHP 5 Objects - (2005-11-04)
  [1224] Object Relation Mapping (ORM) - (2007-06-09)
  [2322] Looking for a practical standards course - (2009-08-05)
  [2977] What is a factory method and why use one? - Example in Ruby - (2010-09-30)
  [3608] Design Patterns - what are they? Why use them? - (2012-02-12)
  [3716] Learning C++ - a design pattern for your first class - (2012-05-02)
  [3810] Reading files, and using factories to create vectors of objects from the data in C++ - (2012-07-21)
  [3843] Caching Design Patterns - (2012-08-20)
  [4021] Spike solution, refactored and reusable, Python - Example - (2013-02-28)
  [4096] Perl design patterns example - (2013-05-20)
  [4098] Using object orientation for non-physical objects - (2013-05-22)
  [4325] Learning to program - what are algorithms and design patterns? - (2014-11-22)
  [4330] Java - factory method, encapsulation, hashmap example - (2014-11-27)
  [4356] Object factories in C++, Python, PHP and Perl - (2014-12-19)
  [4359] How to avoid too many recalculations within an object - (2014-12-21)
  [4377] Designing a base class and subclasses, and their extension, in C++ - (2015-01-01)
  [4396] Java Utility class - flexible replacement for array. Also cacheing in objects and multiple catch clauses example. - (2015-01-16)
  [4421] How healthy are the stars of stage and screen? - (2015-02-09)
  [4581] Thin application, thick objects - keep you main code simple. Example in Ruby - (2015-11-21)
  [4626] Singleton design pattern - examples and uses - (2016-01-20)
  [4663] Easy data to object mapping (csv and Python) - (2016-03-24)
  [4673] Separating detailed data code from the main application - Ruby example - (2016-05-16)

Q907 - Object Orientation and General technical topics - Object Orientation: Design Techniques
  [80] OO - real benefits - (2004-10-09)
  [236] Tapping in on resources - (2005-03-05)
  [507] Introduction to Object Oriented Programming - (2005-11-27)
  [534] Design - one name, one action - (2005-12-19)
  [656] Think about your design even if you don't use full UML - (2006-03-24)
  [747] The Fag Packet Design Methodology - (2006-06-06)
  [831] Comparison of Object Oriented Philosophy - Python, Java, C++, Perl - (2006-08-13)
  [836] Build on what you already have with OO - (2006-08-17)
  [1047] Maintainable code - some positive advice - (2007-01-21)
  [1217] What are factory and singleton classes? - (2007-06-04)
  [1435] Object Oriented Programming in Perl - Course - (2007-11-18)
  [1528] Object Oriented Tcl - (2008-02-02)
  [1538] Teaching Object Oriented Java with Students and Ice Cream - (2008-02-12)
  [2169] When should I use OO techniques? - (2009-05-11)
  [2170] Designing a heirarcy of classes - getting inheritance right - (2009-05-11)
  [2327] Planning! - (2009-08-08)
  [2380] Object Oriented programming - a practical design example - (2009-08-27)
  [2501] Simples - (2009-11-12)
  [2523] Plan your application before you start - (2009-12-02)
  [2717] The Multiple Inheritance Conundrum, interfaces and mixins - (2010-04-11)
  [2747] Containment, Associative Objects, Inheritance, packages and modules - (2010-04-30)
  [2785] The Light bulb moment when people see how Object Orientation works in real use - (2010-05-28)
  [2865] Relationships between Java classes - inheritance, packaging and others - (2010-07-10)
  [2878] Program for reliability and efficiency - do not duplicate, but rather share and re-use - (2010-07-19)
  [2889] Should Python classes each be in their own file? - (2010-07-27)
  [2953] Turning an exercise into the real thing with extreme programming - (2010-09-11)
  [3063] Comments in and on Perl - a case for extreme OO programming - (2010-11-21)
  [3085] Object Oriented Programming for Structured Programmers - conversion training - (2010-12-14)
  [3260] Ruby - a training example that puts many language elements together to demonstrate the whole - (2011-04-23)
  [3454] Your PHP website - how to factor and refactor to reduce growing pains - (2011-09-24)
  [3607] Designing your application - using UML techniques - (2012-02-11)
  [3760] Why you should use objects even for short data manipulation programs in Ruby - (2012-06-10)
  [3763] Spike solutions and refactoring - a Python example - (2012-06-13)
  [3798] When you should use Object Orientation even in a short program - Python example - (2012-07-06)
  [3844] Rooms ready for guests - each time, every time, thanks to good system design - (2012-08-20)
  [3878] From Structured to Object Oriented Programming. - (2012-10-02)
  [3887] Inheritance, Composition and Associated objects - when to use which - Python example - (2012-10-10)
  [3928] Storing your intermediate data - what format should you you choose? - (2012-11-20)
  [3978] Teaching OO - how to avoid lots of window switching early on - (2013-01-17)
  [4374] Test driven development, and class design, from first principles (using C++) - (2014-12-30)
  [4430] The spirit of Java - delegating to classes - (2015-02-18)
  [4449] Spike solution, refactoring into encapsulated object methods - good design practise - (2015-03-05)
  [4628] Associative objects - one object within another. - (2016-01-20)

H108 - Objects in PHP
  [67] Object Oriented Programming in PHP - (2004-09-29)
  [124] PHP v Java - (2004-11-20)
  [205] PHP5 lets you say no - (2005-02-07)
  [343] Should I use structured or object oriented? - (2005-06-10)
  [421] Don't repeat code - use loops or functions - (2005-08-21)
  [720] Planning a hotel refurb - an example of a Gant chart in PHP - (2006-05-14)
  [1027] Cue the music, I'm happy. - (2007-01-09)
  [1153] Object Oriented Model - a summary of changes from PHP4 to PHP5 - (2007-04-18)
  [1535] OO PHP demonstration - comparing objects and more - (2008-02-08)
  [1682] Accounts in PHP - an OO demo - (2008-06-19)
  [1819] Calling base class constructors - (2008-10-03)
  [1820] Sorting objects in PHP - (2008-10-04)
  [1925] Introduction to Object Oriented Programming - (2008-12-06)
  [2160] PHP - getclass v instanceof - (2009-05-07)
  [2171] Cleaning up redundant objects - (2009-05-11)
  [2172] PHP4 v PHP5 - Object Model Difference - (2009-05-11)
  [2434] Abstract classes, Interfaces, PHP and Java - (2009-10-03)
  [2435] Serialization - storing and reloading objects - (2009-10-04)
  [2632] Shipping a test harness with your class in PHP - (2010-02-12)
  [2641] Object Oriented Programming in PHP - (2010-02-19)
  [2680] Static class members in PHP - a documented example - (2010-03-16)
  [2774] PHP - Object Oriented Design in use - (2010-05-21)
  [2921] Does copying a variable duplicate the contents? - (2010-08-14)
  [2922] Getting the OO design write - with PHP a example - (2010-08-14)
  [3142] Private and Public - and things between - (2011-01-22)
  [3210] Catchable fatal error in PHP ... How to catch, and alternative solutions such as JSON - (2011-03-22)
  [3211] Computer Graphics in PHP - World (incoming data) to Pixel (screen) conversion - (2011-03-24)
  [3609] How do classes relate to each other? Associated Classes - (2012-02-12)
  [3840] Autoload in PHP - (2012-08-17)
  [3841] Copying, duplicating, cloning an object in PHP - (2012-08-18)
  [3953] Objects in PHP - Revision - (2012-12-16)
  [4057] stdClass in PHP - using an object rather than an associative array - (2013-04-02)
  [4073] Learning about Object Orientation in PHP - a new set of examples - (2013-04-28)
  [4366] Changing what operators do on objects - a comparison across different programming languages - (2014-12-26)
  [4627] Caching results in an object for efficiency - avoiding re-calculation - (2016-01-20)


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This is a page archived from The Horse's Mouth at http://www.wellho.net/horse/ - the diary and writings of Graham Ellis. Every attempt was made to provide current information at the time the page was written, but things do move forward in our business - new software releases, price changes, new techniques. Please check back via our main site for current courses, prices, versions, etc - any mention of a price in "The Horse's Mouth" cannot be taken as an offer to supply at that price.

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