Struktuurimustrid

Struktuurimustrid, known in English as structural patterns, are a category of design patterns used in software engineering. They describe how to compose objects and classes into larger structures. These patterns are concerned with simplifying complex relationships between classes and objects, often by creating a unified interface to a set of objects or by delegating responsibilities to subclasses.

The primary goal of structural patterns is to make systems more flexible and efficient by managing object and class relationships. They achieve this by defining ways to combine existing objects and classes to form new functionalities. Instead of creating new classes or objects from scratch, structural patterns provide blueprints for assembling them in a coherent and reusable manner.

Common structural patterns include the Adapter pattern, which allows incompatible interfaces to work together; the Bridge pattern, which decouples an abstraction from its implementation; the Composite pattern, which composes objects into tree structures to represent part-whole hierarchies; the Decorator pattern, which attaches additional responsibilities to an object dynamically; the Facade pattern, which provides a simplified interface to a complex subsystem; the Flyweight pattern, which uses sharing to support large numbers of fine-grained objects efficiently; and the Proxy pattern, which acts as a surrogate or placeholder for another object to control access to it.

By employing structural patterns, developers can create software that is easier to understand, maintain, and extend. They promote code reusability and help in building robust and scalable applications by providing well-tested solutions to common structural challenges.