Essential Swift

Builder Pattern

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The builder pattern is an object creation software design pattern. Unlike the abstract factory pattern and the factory method pattern whose intention is to enable polymorphism, the intention of the builder pattern is to find a solution to the telescoping constructor anti-pattern. The telescoping constructor anti-pattern occurs when the increase of object constructor parameter combination leads to an exponential list of constructors. Instead of using numerous constructors, the builder pattern uses another object, a builder, that receives each initialization parameter step by step and then returns the resulting constructed object at once.

-Wikipedia

The main goal of the builder pattern is to setup a default configuration for an object from its creation. It is an intermediary between the object will be built and all other objects related to building it.

Example:

To make it more clear, let’s take a look at a Car Builder example.

Consider that we have a Car class contains many options to create an object, such as: 

import UIKit

enum CarType {
    case
    
    sportage,
    saloon
}

enum GearType {
    case
    
    manual,
    automatic
}

struct Motor {
    var id: String
    var name: String
    var model: String
    var numberOfCylinders: UInt8
}

class Car: CustomStringConvertible {
    var color: UIColor
    var numberOfSeats: UInt8
    var numberOfWheels: UInt8
    var type: CarType
    var gearType: GearType
    var motor: Motor
    var shouldHasAirbags: Bool
    
    var description: String {
        return "color: \(color)\nNumber of seats: \(numberOfSeats)\nNumber of Wheels: \(numberOfWheels)\n Type: \(gearType)\nMotor: \(motor)\nAirbag Availability: \(shouldHasAirbags)"
    }
    
    init(color: UIColor, numberOfSeats: UInt8, numberOfWheels: UInt8, type: CarType, gearType: GearType, motor: Motor, shouldHasAirbags: Bool) {
        
        self.color = color
        self.numberOfSeats = numberOfSeats
        self.numberOfWheels = numberOfWheels
        self.type = type
        self.gearType = gearType
        self.motor = motor
        self.shouldHasAirbags = shouldHasAirbags
        
    }
}

Creating a car object: 

let aCar = Car(color: UIColor.black,
               numberOfSeats: 4,
               numberOfWheels: 4,
               type: .saloon,
               gearType: .automatic,
               motor: Motor(id: "101", name: "Super Motor",
                            model: "c4", numberOfCylinders: 6),
               shouldHasAirbags: true)

print(aCar)

/* Printing
 color: UIExtendedGrayColorSpace 0 1
 Number of seats: 4
 Number of Wheels: 4
 Type: automatic
 Motor: Motor(id: "101", name: "Super Motor", model: "c4", numberOfCylinders: 6)
 Airbag Availability: true
*/

The problem arises when creating a car object is that the car requires many configuration data to be created.

For applying the Builder Pattern, the initializer parameters should have default values which are changeable if needed.

CarBuilder class: 

class CarBuilder {
    var color: UIColor = UIColor.black
    var numberOfSeats: UInt8 = 5
    var numberOfWheels: UInt8 = 4
    var type: CarType = .saloon
    var gearType: GearType = .automatic
    var motor: Motor = Motor(id: "111", name: "Default Motor",
                             model: "T9", numberOfCylinders: 4)
    var shouldHasAirbags: Bool = false
    
    func buildCar() -> Car {
        return Car(color: color, numberOfSeats: numberOfSeats, numberOfWheels: numberOfWheels, type: type, gearType: gearType, motor: motor, shouldHasAirbags: shouldHasAirbags)
    }
}

The CarBuilder class defines properties that could be changed to to edit the values of the created car object.

Let’s build new cars by using the CarBuilder: 

var builder = CarBuilder()
// currently, the builder creates cars with default configuration.

let defaultCar = builder.buildCar()
//print(defaultCar.description)
/* prints
 color: UIExtendedGrayColorSpace 0 1
 Number of seats: 5
 Number of Wheels: 4
 Type: automatic
 Motor: Motor(id: "111", name: "Default Motor", model: "T9", numberOfCylinders: 4)
 Airbag Availability: false
*/

builder.shouldHasAirbags = true
// now, the builder creates cars with default configuration,
// but with a small edit on making the airbags available

let safeCar = builder.buildCar()
print(safeCar.description)
/* prints
 color: UIExtendedGrayColorSpace 0 1
 Number of seats: 5
 Number of Wheels: 4
 Type: automatic
 Motor: Motor(id: "111", name: "Default Motor", model: "T9", numberOfCylinders: 4)
 Airbag Availability: true
 */

builder.color = UIColor.purple
// now, the builder creates cars with default configuration
// with some extra features: the airbags are available and the color is purple

let femaleCar = builder.buildCar()
print(femaleCar)
/* prints
 color: UIExtendedSRGBColorSpace 0.5 0 0.5 1
 Number of seats: 5
 Number of Wheels: 4
 Type: automatic
 Motor: Motor(id: "111", name: "Default Motor", model: "T9", numberOfCylinders: 4)
 Airbag Availability: true
*/

The benefit of applying the Builder Pattern is the ease of creating objects that should contain much of configurations by setting default values, also, the ease of changing these default values.

Take it Further:

As a good practice, all properties that need default values should be in a separated protocol, which should be implemented by the class itself and its builder.

Backing to our example, let’s create a new protocol called CarBluePrint: 

import UIKit

enum CarType {
    case
    
    sportage,
    saloon
}

enum GearType {
    case
    
    manual,
    automatic
}

struct Motor {
    var id: String
    var name: String
    var model: String
    var numberOfCylinders: UInt8
}

protocol CarBluePrint {
    var color: UIColor { get set }
    var numberOfSeats: UInt8 { get set }
    var numberOfWheels: UInt8 { get set }
    var type: CarType { get set }
    var gearType: GearType { get set }
    var motor: Motor { get set }
    var shouldHasAirbags: Bool { get set }
}

class Car: CustomStringConvertible, CarBluePrint {
    var color: UIColor
    var numberOfSeats: UInt8
    var numberOfWheels: UInt8
    var type: CarType
    var gearType: GearType
    var motor: Motor
    var shouldHasAirbags: Bool
    
    var description: String {
        return "color: \(color)\nNumber of seats: \(numberOfSeats)\nNumber of Wheels: \(numberOfWheels)\n Type: \(gearType)\nMotor: \(motor)\nAirbag Availability: \(shouldHasAirbags)"
    }
    
    init(color: UIColor, numberOfSeats: UInt8, numberOfWheels: UInt8, type: CarType, gearType: GearType, motor: Motor, shouldHasAirbags: Bool) {
        
        self.color = color
        self.numberOfSeats = numberOfSeats
        self.numberOfWheels = numberOfWheels
        self.type = type
        self.gearType = gearType
        self.motor = motor
        self.shouldHasAirbags = shouldHasAirbags
        
    }
}

class CarBuilder: CarBluePrint {
    var color: UIColor = UIColor.black
    var numberOfSeats: UInt8 = 5
    var numberOfWheels: UInt8 = 4
    var type: CarType = .saloon
    var gearType: GearType = .automatic
    var motor: Motor = Motor(id: "111", name: "Default Motor",
                             model: "T9", numberOfCylinders: 4)
    var shouldHasAirbags: Bool = false
    
    func buildCar() -> Car {
        return Car(color: color, numberOfSeats: numberOfSeats, numberOfWheels: numberOfWheels, type: type, gearType: gearType, motor: motor, shouldHasAirbags: shouldHasAirbags)
    }
}

The benefit of declaring the properties that need default value into a protocol is the forcing to implement any new added property; When a class conforms to a protocol, it has to declare all its properties/methods.

Consider that there is a required new feature that should be added to the blueprint of creating a car called “battery name”: 

protocol CarBluePrint {
    var color: UIColor { get set }
    var numberOfSeats: UInt8 { get set }
    var numberOfWheels: UInt8 { get set }
    var type: CarType { get set }
    var gearType: GearType { get set }
    var motor: Motor { get set }
    var shouldHasAirbags: Bool { get set }
    
    // adding the new property
    var batteryName: String { get set }
}

After adding the new property, note that two compile-time errors will arise, notifying that conforming to CarBluePrint protocol requires to declare ‘batteryName’ property. That guarantees that CarBuilder will declare and set a default value for batteryName property.

After adding batteryName new property to CarBluePrint protocol, the implementation of both Car and CarBuilder classes should be: 

class Car: CustomStringConvertible, CarBluePrint {
    var color: UIColor
    var numberOfSeats: UInt8
    var numberOfWheels: UInt8
    var type: CarType
    var gearType: GearType
    var motor: Motor
    var shouldHasAirbags: Bool
    var batteryName: String
    
    var description: String {
        return "color: \(color)\nNumber of seats: \(numberOfSeats)\nNumber of Wheels: \(numberOfWheels)\nType: \(gearType)\nMotor: \(motor)\nAirbag Availability: \(shouldHasAirbags)\nBattery Name: \(batteryName)"
    }
    
    init(color: UIColor, numberOfSeats: UInt8, numberOfWheels: UInt8, type: CarType, gearType: GearType, motor: Motor, shouldHasAirbags: Bool, batteryName: String) {
        
        self.color = color
        self.numberOfSeats = numberOfSeats
        self.numberOfWheels = numberOfWheels
        self.type = type
        self.gearType = gearType
        self.motor = motor
        self.shouldHasAirbags = shouldHasAirbags
        self.batteryName = batteryName
    }
}

class CarBuilder: CarBluePrint {
    var color: UIColor = UIColor.red
    var numberOfSeats: UInt8 = 5
    var numberOfWheels: UInt8 = 4
    var type: CarType = .saloon
    var gearType: GearType = .automatic
    var motor: Motor = Motor(id: "111", name: "Default Motor",
                             model: "T9", numberOfCylinders: 4)
    var shouldHasAirbags: Bool = false
    var batteryName: String = "Default Battery Name"
    
    func buildCar() -> Car {
        return Car(color: color, numberOfSeats: numberOfSeats, numberOfWheels: numberOfWheels, type: type, gearType: gearType, motor: motor, shouldHasAirbags: shouldHasAirbags, batteryName: batteryName)
    }
}

Again, let’s build new cars by using the CarBuilder: 

var builder = CarBuilder()

let defaultCar = builder.buildCar()
print(defaultCar)
/* prints
 color: UIExtendedSRGBColorSpace 1 0 0 1
 Number of seats: 5
 Number of Wheels: 4
 Type: automatic
 Motor: Motor(id: "111", name: "Default Motor", model: "T9", numberOfCylinders: 4)
 Airbag Availability: false
 Battery Name: Default Battery Name
*/

builder.batteryName = "New Battery Name"

let editedBatteryCar = builder.buildCar()
print(editedBatteryCar)
/*
 color: UIExtendedSRGBColorSpace 1 0 0 1
 Number of seats: 5
 Number of Wheels: 4
 Type: automatic
 Motor: Motor(id: "111", name: "Default Motor", model: "T9", numberOfCylinders: 4)
 Airbag Availability: false
 Battery Name: New Battery Name
 */
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