Bob The Builder

There are lots of design patterns. The most famous are probably the ones in the Gang of Four's book, Design Patterns. There are lots of good patterns in there. Each pattern has its strengths and weaknesses. Of course, like any good tool in your toolbox, you can use any particular pattern for multiple things. As important as it is to know when to use a pattern, knowing when to NOT use a pattern is more important. Just like you can use a screwdriver as a prybar when you need to, you shouldn't reach for a screwdriver when you need a prybar.

One such pattern is the Builder pattern for constructing new instances. There's a fairly narrow set of use cases, so most of the time it doesn't apply. The Builder pattern is most useful when you need create an immutable object with lots of overridable defaults. You could create a set of overloaded constructors with the common sets of options, and then another with every option, but that's hard to write, hard to use, and hard to maintain. You could write single-use setters, but how do you ensure they're all called before anything is used? What about validation? How do you know that enough has been set to validate? How do you make it readable? Extendable?

Enter the Builder pattern. Basically a collection of chained setters to a Builder that is then used to create the object with a final .Build() method. There are a few advantages. The selection and order of the setters is up to the user. There's no partially constructed object laying around to be misused. You get an explicit indication of when all the parameters are set and that it's time to do validation. Your immutable object springs into existence fully formed and ready to use. Got a new parameter with a sensible default? No problem add it to the Builder and your users won't know until they need it and it's already there. Need more than one of something? Call the .Build() multiple times. Need a bunch of things that are mostly the same? Instead of a single chain of builders bifurcate it at the right point.

Of course, nothing is free. You still need to set all those parameters on your object, so that code doesn't go away. You still need to do validation. Now you need to create a whole new "friend/embedded" thing called the builder. And your builder needs a getter/setter for every parameter, with some validation. So there's a bunch of code you wouldn't otherwise need. If you only have a handful of parameters and they're always needed there's a lot of overhead you should avoid.

But when it's appropriate Builders make things much easier to read/maintain and can help reduce the cognitive load, so next time you find yourself in that situation, consider using a builder.