| layout | pattern | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| title | Flyweight | ||||
| folder | flyweight | ||||
| permalink | /patterns/flyweight/ | ||||
| categories | Structural | ||||
| tags |
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Use sharing to support large numbers of fine-grained objects efficiently.
The Flyweight pattern's effectiveness depends heavily on how and where it's used. Apply the Flyweight pattern when all of the following are true
- an application uses a large number of objects
- storage costs are high because of the sheer quantity of objects
- most object state can be made extrinsic
- many groups of objects may be replaced by relatively few shared objects once extrinsic state is removed
- the application doesn't depend on object identity. Since flyweight objects may be shared, identity tests will return true for conceptually distinct objects.
