Python Design Patterns - Flyweight

The flyweight patterb comes under the structural design patterns category. It provides a way to decrease object count. It includes various features that help in improving application structure. The most important feature of the flyweight objects is immutable. This means that they cannot be modified once constructed. The pattern uses a HashMap to store reference objects.

How to implement the flyweight pattern?

The following program helps in implementing the flyweight pattern −

class ComplexGenetics(object):
   def __init__(self):
      pass
   
   def genes(self, gene_code):
      return "ComplexPatter[%s]TooHugeinSize" % (gene_code)
class Families(object):
   family = {}
   
   def __new__(cls, name, family_id):
      try:
         id = cls.family[family_id]
      except KeyError:
         id = object.__new__(cls)
         cls.family[family_id] = id
      return id
   
   def set_genetic_info(self, genetic_info):
      cg = ComplexGenetics()
      self.genetic_info = cg.genes(genetic_info)
   
   def get_genetic_info(self):
      return (self.genetic_info)

def test():
   data = (('a', 1, 'ATAG'), ('a', 2, 'AAGT'), ('b', 1, 'ATAG'))
   family_objects = []
   for i in data:
      obj = Families(i[0], i[1])
      obj.set_genetic_info(i[2])
      family_objects.append(obj)
   
   for i in family_objects:
      print "id = " + str(id(i))
      print i.get_genetic_info()
   print "similar id's says that they are same objects "

if __name__ == '__main__':
   test()

Output

The above program generates the following output −