Question

I am having a bit of trouble with the design aspect of my JAVA program, there a couple of ways in which I have thought of doing, but I dont know which way is best, or if there is a better way to do it?. Below is an example of one way

                         << ABSTRACT >>
                           Rooms class

      extends                extends         extends
   Room TYPE U            Connector X      Connector U


             AGGREGATE walls - into each room type

The reason why I am getting a bit confused is that the 3 different types of rooms that I am using only differ in there property values(height,width etc..), but all have the same properties. Does this warrant creating a new class for EACH room type?.

Or should I do it the other way which is having the one rooms class and instantiating it three times for each room type and just changing its properties via setters and getters?.

because I would have to set each rooms properties and its aggregated wall properties which could get quite long!.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

If the rooms only differ by their property values, consider using a factory-style pattern. Here’s a simple example:

class Room {

     // room properties
     int x, y, z;

     // constructor taking properties
     public Room (int x, int y, int z) {
         this.x = x;
         this.y = y;
         this.z = z;
     }

     // factory methods
     public static Room createRoomType1() {
         return new Room(100, 200, 300);
     }

     public static Room createRoomType2() {
         return new Room(400, 500, 600);
     }

}

The factory methods are like “preset” constructors for different types of rooms. This strikes a balance between repetition/property setting, and having too many classes.