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Template Method Design Pattern in Java

Published on August 3, 2022
Template Method Design Pattern in Java

Template Method is a behavioral design pattern. Template Method design pattern is used to create a method stub and deferring some of the steps of implementation to the subclasses.

Template Method Design Pattern

Template method defines the steps to execute an algorithm and it can provide default implementation that might be common for all or some of the subclasses. Let’s understand this pattern with an example, suppose we want to provide an algorithm to build a house. The steps need to be performed to build a house are - building foundation, building pillars, building walls and windows. The important point is that the we can’t change the order of execution because we can’t build windows before building the foundation. So in this case we can create a template method that will use different methods to build the house. Now building the foundation for a house is same for all type of houses, whether its a wooden house or a glass house. So we can provide base implementation for this, if subclasses want to override this method, they can but mostly it’s common for all the types of houses. To make sure that subclasses don’t override the template method, we should make it final.

Template Method Abstract Class

Since we want some of the methods to be implemented by subclasses, we have to make our base class as abstract class. HouseTemplate.java

package com.journaldev.design.template;

public abstract class HouseTemplate {

	//template method, final so subclasses can't override
	public final void buildHouse(){
		buildFoundation();
		buildPillars();
		buildWalls();
		buildWindows();
		System.out.println("House is built.");
	}

	//default implementation
	private void buildWindows() {
		System.out.println("Building Glass Windows");
	}

	//methods to be implemented by subclasses
	public abstract void buildWalls();
	public abstract void buildPillars();

	private void buildFoundation() {
		System.out.println("Building foundation with cement,iron rods and sand");
	}
}

buildHouse() is the template method and defines the order of execution for performing several steps.

Template Method Concrete Classes

We can have different type of houses, such as Wooden House and Glass House. WoodenHouse.java

package com.journaldev.design.template;

public class WoodenHouse extends HouseTemplate {

	@Override
	public void buildWalls() {
		System.out.println("Building Wooden Walls");
	}

	@Override
	public void buildPillars() {
		System.out.println("Building Pillars with Wood coating");
	}

}

We could have overridden other methods also, but for simplicity I am not doing that. GlassHouse.java

package com.journaldev.design.template;

public class GlassHouse extends HouseTemplate {

	@Override
	public void buildWalls() {
		System.out.println("Building Glass Walls");
	}

	@Override
	public void buildPillars() {
		System.out.println("Building Pillars with glass coating");
	}

}

Template Method Design Pattern Client

Let’s test our template method pattern example with a test program. HousingClient.java

package com.journaldev.design.template;

public class HousingClient {

	public static void main(String[] args) {
		
		HouseTemplate houseType = new WoodenHouse();
		
		//using template method
		houseType.buildHouse();
		System.out.println("************");
		
		houseType = new GlassHouse();
		
		houseType.buildHouse();
	}

}

Notice that client is invoking the template method of base class and depending of implementation of different steps, it’s using some of the methods from base class and some of them from subclass. Output of the above program is:

Building foundation with cement,iron rods and sand
Building Pillars with Wood coating
Building Wooden Walls
Building Glass Windows
House is built.
************
Building foundation with cement,iron rods and sand
Building Pillars with glass coating
Building Glass Walls
Building Glass Windows
House is built.

Template Method Class Diagram

template method design pattern, template design pattern

Template Method Design Pattern in JDK

  • All non-abstract methods of java.io.InputStream, java.io.OutputStream, java.io.Reader and java.io.Writer.
  • All non-abstract methods of java.util.AbstractList, java.util.AbstractSet and java.util.AbstractMap.

Template Method Design Pattern Important Points

  1. Template method should consists of certain steps whose order is fixed and for some of the methods, implementation differs from base class to subclass. Template method should be final.
  2. Most of the times, subclasses calls methods from super class but in template pattern, superclass template method calls methods from subclasses, this is known as Hollywood Principle - “don’t call us, we’ll call you.”.
  3. Methods in base class with default implementation are referred as Hooks and they are intended to be overridden by subclasses, if you want some of the methods to be not overridden, you can make them final, for example in our case we can make buildFoundation() method final because if we don’t want subclasses to override it.

Thats all for template method design pattern in java, I hope you liked it.

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About the author

Pankaj Kumar
Pankaj Kumar
Author
See author profile

Java and Python Developer for 20+ years, Open Source Enthusiast, Founder of https://www.askpython.com/, https://www.linuxfordevices.com/, and JournalDev.com (acquired by DigitalOcean). Passionate about writing technical articles and sharing knowledge with others. Love Java, Python, Unix and related technologies. Follow my X @PankajWebDev

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Was this helpful?

The buildWindows() and buildFoundation() methods are private, so we cannot overrride them in sub classes. Basically the statement “We could have overridden other methods also, but for simplicity I am not doing that.” is incorrect, unless the two methods mentioned here are either abstract or public.

- Sreeni

Hello Pankaj, Your design pattern tutorials are excellent !!! Thanks a lot !!! Wishing you all the best !!! Thanks, Ravi

- Ravi

Excellent !! Thanks a lot for all your articles in Design Patterns ! Really helpful !

- Subu

Nice Tutorial.

- Sajal Saha

nice one. really awesome…

- perminder singh

Hi Pankaj, The jdk classes(Reader, Writer, …) mentioned by you don’t have any sort of template_method (){ m1(); m2(); … } so how have they implemented the fixed order of calling method. Thanks, Himansu

- Himansu Nayak

Real time approach & Real time professional … Great

- Nilesh Suryavanshi

What if I do it like below…the purpose of template method is lost. HouseTemplate houseType = new WoodenHouse(); houseType .buildWindows(); houseType .buildWalls(); houseType .buildPillars(); How to restrict this.

- test

really helpful. Thanks a lot. :)

- Prosenjit

explanation is superb.

- shobhit khandelwal

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