Effective Java

by Joshua Bloch

To transform a tagged class into a class hierarchy, first define an abstract class containing an abstract method for each method in the tagged class whose behavior depends on the tag value. In the Figure class, there is only one such method, which is area. This abstract class is the root of the class hierarchy. If there are any methods whose behavior does not depend on the value of the tag, put them in this class. Similarly, if there are any data fields used by all the flavors, put them in this class. There are no such flavor-independent methods or fields in the Figure class. Next, define a concrete subclass of the root class for each flavor of the original tagged class. In our example, there are two: circle and rectangle. Include in each subclass the data fields particular to its flavor. In our example, radius is particular to circle, and length and width are particular to rectangle. Also include in each subclass the appropriate implementation of each abstract method in the root class.