|
| 1 | +--- |
| 2 | +title: Singleton Pattern |
| 3 | +created: 2025-04-29 |
| 4 | +tags: |
| 5 | + - creational |
| 6 | +--- |
| 7 | +## Definition |
| 8 | + |
| 9 | +The **Singleton Pattern** ensures that a class has only one instance and provides a global point of access to it. |
| 10 | + |
| 11 | +--- |
| 12 | +## Real-World Analogy |
| 13 | + |
| 14 | +Imagine you have a database that every part of your application needs to access. Creating a new database connection each time can be expensive and requires repetitive configuration connection strings, usernames, passwords, and so on. Instead, you can use a single shared database connector that’s created once and used everywhere. This is exactly where the Singleton Pattern is useful. |
| 15 | +### Implementation in Java |
| 16 | + |
| 17 | +First, create a `DatabaseConnector.java` class with a private constructor so that no one outside the class can directly create an instance. Then define a private static field to hold the single instance of the class. Provide a public static method, `getInstance()`, which returns the instance. If the instance doesn’t exist yet, it’s created; otherwise, the existing instance is returned. |
| 18 | + |
| 19 | +```java title="DatabaseConnector.java" |
| 20 | +public class DatabaseConnector { |
| 21 | + // Holds the single instance |
| 22 | + private static DatabaseConnector instance; |
| 23 | + |
| 24 | + private String connectionString; |
| 25 | + |
| 26 | + // Private constructor prevents external instantiation |
| 27 | + private DatabaseConnector(String connectionString) { |
| 28 | + this.connectionString = connectionString; |
| 29 | + } |
| 30 | + |
| 31 | + @Override |
| 32 | + public String toString() { |
| 33 | + return "DatabaseConnector[connectionString=" + connectionString + "]"; |
| 34 | + } |
| 35 | + |
| 36 | + // Synchronized to avoid race conditions in multithreaded environments |
| 37 | + public static synchronized DatabaseConnector getInstance() { |
| 38 | + if (instance == null) { |
| 39 | + instance = new DatabaseConnector("PostgresSQL"); |
| 40 | + } |
| 41 | + return instance; |
| 42 | + } |
| 43 | +} |
| 44 | +``` |
| 45 | + |
| 46 | +Notice that `getInstance()` is synchronized to prevent multiple threads from creating separate instances simultaneously. |
| 47 | + |
| 48 | +To use the connector: |
| 49 | +```java title="SingletonPatternExample.java" |
| 50 | +public class SingletonPatternExample { |
| 51 | + public static void main(String[] args) { |
| 52 | + DatabaseConnector conn1 = DatabaseConnector.getInstance(); |
| 53 | + System.out.println(conn1); |
| 54 | + |
| 55 | + DatabaseConnector conn2 = DatabaseConnector.getInstance(); |
| 56 | + System.out.println(conn2); |
| 57 | + } |
| 58 | +} |
| 59 | +``` |
| 60 | + |
| 61 | +**Output:** |
| 62 | +``` |
| 63 | +DatabaseConnector[connectionString=PostgresSQL] |
| 64 | +DatabaseConnector[connectionString=PostgresSQL] |
| 65 | +``` |
| 66 | +Both calls return the same instance. |
| 67 | + |
| 68 | +--- |
| 69 | +## Design Diagram |
| 70 | + |
| 71 | +```mermaid |
| 72 | +classDiagram |
| 73 | + class DatabaseConnector { |
| 74 | + - static DatabaseConnector instance |
| 75 | + - String connectionString |
| 76 | + - DatabaseConnector(String connectionString) |
| 77 | + + static DatabaseConnector getInstance() |
| 78 | + + String toString() |
| 79 | + } |
| 80 | +``` |
| 81 | + |
| 82 | +--- |
| 83 | +## Real-World Example in Java |
| 84 | + |
| 85 | +The `Runtime` class in Java also uses the Singleton Pattern. There is only one JVM per machine, so Java provides a single Runtime instance: |
| 86 | + |
| 87 | +```java title="RuntimeExample.java" |
| 88 | +public class RuntimeExample { |
| 89 | + public static void main(String[] args) { |
| 90 | + Runtime rt = Runtime.getRuntime(); |
| 91 | + System.out.println("Available processors: " + rt.availableProcessors()); |
| 92 | + } |
| 93 | +} |
| 94 | +``` |
| 95 | + |
| 96 | +**Output:** |
| 97 | +``` |
| 98 | +Available processors: 8 |
| 99 | +``` |
0 commit comments