An “off the shelf” component offers compelling functionality that you would like to reuse, but its “view of the world” is not compatible with the philosophy and architecture of the system currently being developed.
Reuse has always been painful and elusive. One reason has been the tribulation of designing something new, while reusing something old. There is always something not quite right between the old and the new. It may be physical dimensions or misalignment. It may be timing or synchronization. It may be unfortunate assumptions or competing standards.
It is like the problem of inserting a new three-prong electrical plug in an old two-prong wall outlet – some kind of adapter or intermediary is necessary.
Adapter is about creating an intermediary abstraction that translates, or maps, the old component to the new system. Clients call methods on the Adapter object which redirects them into calls to the legacy component. This strategy can be implemented either with inheritance or with aggregation.
Adapter functions as a wrapper or modifier of an existing class. It provides a different or translated view of that class.
Below, a legacy Rectangle component’s display()
method expects to receive “x, y, w, h” parameters. But the client wants to pass “upper left x and y” and “lower right x and y”. This incongruity can be reconciled by adding an additional level of indirection – i.e. an Adapter object.
The Adapter could also be thought of as a “wrapper”.
The Adapter pattern allows otherwise incompatible classes to work together by converting the interface of one class into an interface expected by the clients. Socket wrenches provide an example of the Adapter. A socket attaches to a ratchet, provided that the size of the drive is the same. Typical drive sizes in the United States are 1/2” and 1/4”. Obviously, a 1/2” drive ratchet will not fit into a 1/4” drive socket unless an adapter is used. A 1/2” to 1/4” adapter has a 1/2” female connection to fit on the 1/2” drive ratchet, and a 1/4” male connection to fit in the 1/4” drive socket.
UML(Class Diagram)
source
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1: unit Adapter;
2:3: interface
4:5: uses SysUtils, Classes;
6:7: type
8: //The old class
9:10: TOldDOB = record
11: Day: 0..31;12: Month: 1..12;13: Year: 0..99;14: end;
15:16: TOldCustomer = class17: FCustomerID: Integer;18: FName: string;
19: FDOB: TOldDOB;20: public21: constructor Create(CustID: Integer);
22: property CustomerID: Integer read FCustomerID;23: property Name: string read FName;
24: property DOB: TOldDOB read FDOB;25: end;
26:27: //The new class
28: TNewCustomer = class29: private30: FCustomerID: Longint;31: FFirstName: string;
32: FLastName: string;
33: FDOB: TDateTime;34: protected35: function GetCustomerID: Longint; virtual;36: function GetFirstName: string; virtual;37: function GetLastName: string; virtual;38: function GetDOB: TDateTime; virtual;39: public40: constructor Create(CustID: Longint); virtual;41: property CustomerID: Longint read GetCustomerID;42: property FirstName: string read GetFirstName;
43: property LastName: string read GetLastName;
44: property DOB: TDateTime read GetDOB;45: end;
46:47: //The Adapter class
48: TAdaptedCustomer = class(TNewCustomer)49: private50: FOldCustomer: TOldCustomer;51: protected52: function GetCustomerID: Longint; override;
53: function GetFirstName: string; override;54: function GetLastName: string; override;55: function GetDOB: TDateTime; override;
56: public57: constructor Create(CustID: Longint); override;
58: destructor Destroy; override;
59: end;
60:61: //An interface method
62:63: //Lets us hide details of TOldCustomer from the client
64:65: function GetCustomer(CustomerID: Longint): TNewCustomer;
66:67: implementation
68:69: const
70: Last_OldCustomer_At_Year_2000 = 15722;71: Last_OldCustomer_In_Database = 30000;72:73: //The new class
74:75: constructor TNewCustomer.Create(CustID: Longint);
76: begin
77: FCustomerID := CustID;78: FFirstName := 'A';79: FLastName := 'New_Customer';80: FDOB := Now;81: end;
82:83: function TNewCustomer.GetCustomerID: Longint;
84: begin
85: Result := FCustomerID;86: end;
87:88: function TNewCustomer.GetFirstName: string;89: begin
90: Result := FFirstName;91: end;
92:93: function TNewCustomer.GetLastName: string;94: begin
95: Result := FLastName;96: end;
97:98: function TNewCustomer.GetDOB: TDateTime;
99: begin
100: Result := FDOB;101: end;
102:103: constructor TOldCustomer.Create(CustID: Integer);
104: begin
105: FCustomerID := CustomerID;106: FName := 'An Old_Customer';107: with FDOB do begin108: Day := 1;109: Month := 1;110: Year := 1;111: end;
112: end;
113:114: //The Adapter class
115:116: constructor TAdaptedCustomer.Create(CustID: Longint);
117: begin
118: inherited Create(CustID);
119: FOldCustomer := TOldCustomer.Create(CustID);120: end;
121:122: destructor TAdaptedCustomer.Destroy;
123: begin
124: FOldCustomer.Free;125: inherited Destroy;
126: end;
127:128: function TAdaptedCustomer.GetCustomerID: Longint;
129: begin
130: Result := FOldCustomer.CustomerID;131: end;
132:133: function TAdaptedCustomer.GetFirstName: string;134: var
135: SpacePos: integer;136: begin
137: SpacePos := Pos(' ', FOldCustomer.Name);138: if SpacePos = 0 then139: Result := ''140: else
141: Result := Copy(FOldCustomer.Name,1,SpacePos-1);142: end;
143:144: function TAdaptedCustomer.GetLastName: string;145: var
146: SpacePos: integer;147: begin
148: SpacePos := Pos(' ', FOldCustomer.Name);149: if SpacePos = 0 then150: Result := FOldCustomer.Name151: else
152: Result := Copy(FOldCustomer.Name,SpacePos+1,255);153: end;
154:155: function TAdaptedCustomer.GetDOB: TDateTime;
156: var
157: FullYear: Word;158: begin
159: if CustomerID > Last_OldCustomer_At_Year_2000 then160: FullYear := 2000 + FOldCustomer.DOB.Year161: else
162: FullYear := 1900 + FOldCustomer.DOB.Year;163: Result := EncodeDate(FullYear, FOldCustomer.DOB.Month, FOldCustomer.DOB.Day);164: end;
165:166: function GetCustomer(CustomerID: Longint): TNewCustomer;
167: begin
168: if CustomerID > Last_OldCustomer_In_Database then169: Result := TNewCustomer.Create(CustomerID)170: else
171: Result := TAdaptedCustomer.Create(CustomerID) as TNewCustomer;172: end;
173:174: end.
175: