Strategy pattern in the .NET BCL
The strategy pattern (aka policy pattern) is a design pattern where we can choose algorithms depending upon the context. The pattern is intended to provide a means to define a family of algorithms encapsulated as an object to make them interchangeable. The strategy pattern lets the algorithms vary independently from the clients that use them.
The Array and the ArrayList classes provide the capability to sort objects contained in them through the Sort method. One can use different strategies to sort by leveraging the strategy design pattern-based API provided by the .NET BCL. The designers of .NET Framework have given us the IComparer<T> interface to provide a sorting strategy. Array and ArrayList provide the capability to sort the objects contained in the collection via the Sort method. Strategy design pattern is used with Array and Arraylist to enable sorting using different strategies, without changing any client code, via an IComparable interface...
