Experts Exchange connects you with the people and services you need so you can get back to work.

How to get an instance of two classes implementing an interface

I have an interface, ReportWriter which has two subclasses, csvWriter and XmlWriter which write the report in html and XML formats respectively.

I have sample code below:

Interface ReportWriter{

public createSuccessfulRow(String msg);

public createFailureRow (String msg);

}

class HtmlWriter{
//Implementation
}

class XmlWriter{

//Implementation
}

Class ReportImpl{

//Instantiate a class of instance XmlWriter or HtmlWriter based on the Interface
}

In my class, ReportImpl, I would like to get an instance of the writer from the interface. Can I use a Enumerator?

Please let me know.

Thanks,
Prasanna

pkrish80

Asked: 2011-09-24

Advertise Here

Java

1 Solution

LVL 47

for_yanCommented: 2011-09-24

I am sorry can you elaborate a little bit.

I don't see any standard class called Enmerator
(there is Enumeration, enum type, but I could not locate Enumerator)

And what is it that you want to accomplish?

Yes, you can use your interface name to specify type of your objects
If, say, you have ArrayList of objects which contains instances
of both HTMLWriter and XMLWriter, then
in ReportImpl

you can get elemenst of this ArrayList like that:

ArrayList<ReportWriter> arrayList;

ReportWriter rw = arrayList.get(0);
rw.createSuccesFullRow(message);

rw = arrayList.get(1);
rw.createSuccessfulRow(message);

and in this way have printout in different formats.

Is there some other way how you want to use this interface?

pkrish80Author Commented: 2011-09-25

Hi for_yan,

Yes, In ReportImpl, I want to create an Instance of one of the different type of report writer. I want to know of other ways to get an instance with the Interface other than a arraylist. I wanted ideas around Using Enum type and Enumeration.

Can I get a specific type of writer with code such as

(ReportWriter) writer = ReportWriter.getWriter(); and it returns a html or csv writer automatically? I know this might be a bit vague. Please do let me know if you have any other ideas?

Thanks

LVL 47

for_yanCommented: 2011-09-25

Can you explain what it is that you want to accomplish?

With arraylist, inteface and perhapse instanceof operator you should be able to do whatever you need

LVL 1

dileephCommented: 2011-09-26

Prasanna,

This is where the FactoryPattern comes in. There are different ways of doing this, but in essence you create a new class ReportWriterFactory. This will have the static ReportWriter getWriter(type) method.

From your ReportImpl class you will then invoke either ReportWriter.getWriter("csv") or ReportWriter.getWriter("xml"); This will then give the correct instance back. Internally the Factory class can be implemented in n number of ways - again all it does is check the type of instance needed and return either new XmlReportWriter() or new CSVReportWriter().

When I said "n" number of ways, one way would be to use an xml file to map the type to instance, you could use singleton writer instances and pre-cache them, instead of type string you can pass type enum ... so many ways.

Please let me know if you need more help.

pkrish80Author Commented: 2011-09-26

How do I use type enum with in my ReportWriterFactory class? Can you throw more light on it?

pkrish80Author Commented: 2011-09-26

The ReportWriterFactory class, would that be an abstract class which the csv and xml report writers would sublass?

LVL 1

dileephCommented: 2011-09-26

I am attaching a very simple example of how factory pattern can be used in your case. You can do fancy stuff like singletons and Hashmap based caches. If you go for caching please make sure your Writer instances are thread-safe.

src.zip

Question has a verified solution.

Are you are experiencing a similar issue? Get a personalized answer when you ask a related question.

Have a better answer? Share it in a comment.

How to get an instance of two classes implementing an interface

Join & Write a Comment Already a member? Login.

Featured Post