Design

Design Patterns
Patterns
CE00362-3
CT070-3-3

Creational Pattern – Singleton

Introduction & Overview

CT070-3-3 - Design Patterns Singleton Slide 1 (of 17)

 Learning Outcomes

At the end of this session, you should be

able to;

– Describe benefits of Singleton pattern

– Recognise and apply Singleton pattern
given a scenario

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 Singleton

Intent:
To ensure that a class has only one instance, and to
provide a global point of access to it.
Motivation:
It is important for some classes to have exactly one
instance. Although there can be many printers in a
system, there should be only one printer spooler. How
do we ensure that a class has only one instance and
that the instance is easily accessible?

CT070-3-3 - Design Patterns Singleton Slide 5 (of 17)

 Description - Singleton

Applicability:
Use Singleton pattern when
- There must be exactly one instance of a class,
and it must be accessible to clients from a
well-known access point.
- When the sole instance should be extensible
by subclassing, and clients should be able to
use an extended instance without modifying
their code.

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 Definition - Singleton

Ensures that a class has only one instance

and to provide a global point of access to it.

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 Responsibility Pattern?

• Objects can usually act responsiblity

– Just by performing their own work
• Some objects take on further
responsibilities
– Representing real-world entities
– Coordinating work
– Modeling the state of a system.

CT070-3-3 - Design Patterns Singleton Slide 8 (of 17)

 Global Access

• When a particular object in a system bears

a global responsibility
– you need a way to find the responsible object.
• In some cases the object you need will be
the only instance of its class.

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 A Single Object

• You want to ensure that there is exactly

one instance
• And, you want to provide other developers
a way to access this instance.
• Example: Factory Class

CT070-3-3 - Design Patterns Singleton Slide 10 (of 17)

 How and Why

• The mechanics of Singleton are more

memorable than its intent.
• It is easier to explain how to ensure that a
class has only one instance than it is to
say why you might want this restriction.
• You might categorize Singleton as a
“creational” pattern.

CT070-3-3 - Design Patterns Singleton Slide 11 (of 17)

 When to Instantiate?

• One choice is to create this instance as a

static field in the class.

– For example, the Runtime class in java.lang

includes the line:
– private static Runtime
currentRuntime = new Runtime();

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 Lazy Initialization
• You might wait until the instance is first
needed.
• A Factory class might make its single
instance available with:
public static Factory getFactory() {
if (factory == null) {
factory = new Factory();
// ...
}
return factory;
}

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 Garbage Collection

• Once you create a singleton instance,

– it might get garbage-collected
• You might want to prevent this
– If your object has a significant startup cost
– Or if it is gathering statistics

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 Summary

• Ensure that a class has only one instance,

• And provide a global point of access to it.
• Regardless of the mechanics, the value of
Singleton lies in centralizing authority in a
single object.

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 Question and Answer Session

Q&A

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 References

Steven John Metsker, Design Patterns Java

Workbook, Addison Wesley

Erich Gamma et. al., Design Patterns –

Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented
Software, Addison Wesley

CT070-3-3 - Design Patterns Singleton Slide 17 (of 17)