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F# Strategy Pattern

Playing with the OO Strategy Pattern and the F# type system

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(* Having witnessed a painful attempt at the Strategy design pattern I was inspired
to share some of the little knowledge I have.

If you are unsure whether you got the pattern right you should always ask yourself
the question: What problem is it trying to solve?

If you are not solving the following problem, then it isn't called the Strategy pattern:

    How can I modify the behavior of a class (even at run-time)
    without having to change its implementation.

The general idea is to parameterize the class with the implementation of another interface
passed in via the constructor.

Our class then delegates the behavior to the implementation it's being passed: *)

type IMakeNoise =
    abstract Talk: Animal -> unit

and Animal(name: string, makeNoise: IMakeNoise) =
    member x.Name = name
    member this.Talk() = makeNoise.Talk this

type FrogNoise() =
    interface IMakeNoise with
        member x.Talk frog = printfn "%s croaks" frog.Name

type MouseNoise() =
    interface IMakeNoise with
        member x.Talk _ = printfn "A mouse squeals"

let frog = Animal("Billy", FrogNoise())
let mouse = Animal("", MouseNoise())

frog.Talk()
mouse.Talk()

(* Notice a few things:

-   We have a single implementation of animals and adapting the behavior of the animal
    talking will not require a change to its implementation.
-   We have the choice of defining the interface IMakeNoise with or without accepting
    the Animal instance it will act for:
    -   Passing the instance to the talk function makes it more flexible,
        notice how I couldn't have implemented the "nameless" mouse squeal
        without changing our Animal implementation otherwise.
    - On the other hand, this requires a cycle, for which I invite you
      to read Scott Wlaschin's excellent serie on the subject:
      http://fsharpforfunandprofit.com/series/dependency-cycles.html

Making the interface generic breaks the cycle, is more flexible and preserves type safety: *)

type IMakeNoise<'T> =
    abstract Talk: 'T -> unit

type Creature(name: string, makeNoise: IMakeNoise<Creature>) =
    member __.Name = name
    member this.Talk() = makeNoise.Talk this

(* A great feature of the F# type system is Object Expression which allow you to instantiate
an object/interface without the need for an explicit class definition: *)

let horse =
    let makeNoise =
        {
            new IMakeNoise<Creature> with
                member __.Talk horse = printfn "%s snorts" horse.Name
        }
    Creature("Fred", makeNoise)

horse.Talk()

(* We said that our class *delegates* the responsibility to an implementation of IMakeNoise.
This is where the difference between the Delegation and Strategy pattern lies,
wherea the Delegation pattern has our class instantiate the class to which it will delegate
the work, the Strategy pattern has the implementation passed in at construction.

Being more flexible it can also be done at run-time making our code
less vulnerable to evolving requirements.

Another concept we know from C# called a delegate which is a poor man's function type. Our
IMakeNoise interface defines a single method with a fixed signature and can thus be expressed
without having to rely on the interface at all: Creature -> Unit *)

type Monster(name: string, makeNoise: Monster -> unit) =
    member __.Name = name
    member x.Talk() = makeNoise x

let troll = Monster("Grendel", fun troll -> printfn "%s bellows" troll.Name)

troll.Talk()

(* Object Expression can push the limit further switching the class to an interface.

We can also untangle the constructor from the type and still avoid any code duplication.
Notice how you could squeeze a Factory pattern for free right there. *)

type IMonster =
    abstract Name: string
    abstract Talk: unit -> unit

let monster name makeNoise =
    {
        new IMonster with
            member __.Name = name
            member x.Talk() = makeNoise x
    }

let dragon = monster "Onyxia" (fun d -> printfn "%s roars" d.Name)
let whelp = monster "" (fun _ -> printfn "The whelp screeches")

dragon.Talk()
whelp.Talk()

(* You can see how this is at least as flexible and we have maintained type safety.

Records also allows us to untangle the type and a fixed class *)

type Beast =
    {
        Name: string
        Talk: unit -> unit
    }

let beast name makeNoise =
    {
        Name = name
        Talk = fun () -> makeNoise name
    }

let thunders = printfn "%s thunders"

let hulk = beast "The Hulk" thunders

hulk.Talk()

(* At this point you really have to squint to see an OO design pattern as this is much
closer to functional programming.

In fact functional programmers tend not to label this at all since programming with
higher order function is simply called "Programming".

Some might argue this is still object oriented as an F# Record is implemented as a
class under the cover. There is also the fact that our beast instance closes over our
thunders function.

One should notice that inheritance isn't possible when using the Record, on the other
hand many good OO programmers would argue that inheritance is misused more often than
not. And being a type as opposed to a class, the record allows for multiple implementations.

Mutation whose bad usage tend to outnumber the good ones 10 to 1 isn't OO per-se but
is frequently seen as OO's natural companion. Without making it impossible, Records
thwart you from using mutation which will generally lead you to better designs.

A commonly seen case for mutation gone awry that also shows poor understanding of Design
patterns is when you see a factory that generates instances of a class who's been endowed
with a parameterless constructor and uses mutable properties to set the instance's state.
This is an obvious misuse of the pattern as one of the roles of the constructor is to prevent
the creation of instances in an invalid state. *)
abstract member IMakeNoise.Talk : Animal -> unit

Full name: Script.IMakeNoise.Talk
Multiple items
type Animal =
  new : name:string * makeNoise:IMakeNoise -> Animal
  member Talk : unit -> unit
  member Name : string

Full name: Script.Animal

--------------------
new : name:string * makeNoise:IMakeNoise -> Animal
type unit = Unit

Full name: Microsoft.FSharp.Core.unit
val name : string
Multiple items
val string : value:'T -> string

Full name: Microsoft.FSharp.Core.Operators.string

--------------------
type string = System.String

Full name: Microsoft.FSharp.Core.string
val makeNoise : IMakeNoise
type IMakeNoise =
  interface
    abstract member Talk : Animal -> unit
  end

Full name: Script.IMakeNoise
val x : Animal
member Animal.Name : string

Full name: Script.Animal.Name
val this : Animal
member Animal.Talk : unit -> unit

Full name: Script.Animal.Talk
abstract member IMakeNoise.Talk : Animal -> unit
Multiple items
type FrogNoise =
  interface IMakeNoise
  new : unit -> FrogNoise

Full name: Script.FrogNoise

--------------------
new : unit -> FrogNoise
val x : FrogNoise
override FrogNoise.Talk : frog:Animal -> unit

Full name: Script.FrogNoise.Talk
val frog : Animal
val printfn : format:Printf.TextWriterFormat<'T> -> 'T

Full name: Microsoft.FSharp.Core.ExtraTopLevelOperators.printfn
property Animal.Name: string
Multiple items
type MouseNoise =
  interface IMakeNoise
  new : unit -> MouseNoise

Full name: Script.MouseNoise

--------------------
new : unit -> MouseNoise
val x : MouseNoise
override MouseNoise.Talk : Animal -> unit

Full name: Script.MouseNoise.Talk
val frog : Animal

Full name: Script.frog
val mouse : Animal

Full name: Script.mouse
member Animal.Talk : unit -> unit
Multiple items
type IMakeNoise =
  interface
    abstract member Talk : Animal -> unit
  end

Full name: Script.IMakeNoise

--------------------
type IMakeNoise<'T> =
  interface
    abstract member Talk : 'T -> unit
  end

Full name: Script.IMakeNoise<_>
abstract member IMakeNoise.Talk : 'T -> unit

Full name: Script.IMakeNoise`1.Talk
Multiple items
type Creature =
  new : name:string * makeNoise:IMakeNoise<Creature> -> Creature
  member Talk : unit -> unit
  member Name : string

Full name: Script.Creature

--------------------
new : name:string * makeNoise:IMakeNoise<Creature> -> Creature
val makeNoise : IMakeNoise<Creature>
member Creature.Name : string

Full name: Script.Creature.Name
val this : Creature
member Creature.Talk : unit -> unit

Full name: Script.Creature.Talk
abstract member IMakeNoise.Talk : 'T -> unit
val horse : Creature

Full name: Script.horse
val horse : Creature
property Creature.Name: string
member Creature.Talk : unit -> unit
Multiple items
type Monster =
  new : name:string * makeNoise:(Monster -> unit) -> Monster
  member Talk : unit -> unit
  member Name : string

Full name: Script.Monster

--------------------
new : name:string * makeNoise:(Monster -> unit) -> Monster
val makeNoise : (Monster -> unit)
member Monster.Name : string

Full name: Script.Monster.Name
val x : Monster
member Monster.Talk : unit -> unit

Full name: Script.Monster.Talk
val troll : Monster

Full name: Script.troll
val troll : Monster
property Monster.Name: string
member Monster.Talk : unit -> unit
type IMonster =
  interface
    abstract member Talk : unit -> unit
    abstract member Name : string
  end

Full name: Script.IMonster
abstract member IMonster.Name : string

Full name: Script.IMonster.Name
abstract member IMonster.Talk : unit -> unit

Full name: Script.IMonster.Talk
val monster : name:string -> makeNoise:(IMonster -> unit) -> IMonster

Full name: Script.monster
val makeNoise : (IMonster -> unit)
val x : IMonster
abstract member IMonster.Talk : unit -> unit
val dragon : IMonster

Full name: Script.dragon
val d : IMonster
property IMonster.Name: string
val whelp : IMonster

Full name: Script.whelp
type Beast =
  {Name: string;
   Talk: unit -> unit;}

Full name: Script.Beast
Beast.Name: string
Beast.Talk: unit -> unit
val beast : name:string -> makeNoise:(string -> unit) -> Beast

Full name: Script.beast
val makeNoise : (string -> unit)
val thunders : (string -> unit)

Full name: Script.thunders
val hulk : Beast

Full name: Script.hulk
Raw view Test code New version

More information

Link:http://fssnip.net/k8
Posted:11 years ago
Author:David Grenier
Tags: strategy pattern , object expression , function type , mutation , design pattern