The strategy pattern
The strategy pattern is a common demonstration of abstraction in object-oriented programming. The pattern implements different solutions to a single problem, each in a different object. The client code can then choose the most appropriate implementation dynamically at runtime.
Typically, different algorithms have different trade-offs; one might be faster than another, but uses a lot more memory, while a third algorithm may be most suitable when multiple CPUs are present or a distributed system is provided. Here is the strategy pattern in UML:
The User code connecting to the strategy pattern simply needs to know that it is dealing with the Abstraction interface. The actual implementation chosen performs the same task, but in different ways; either way, the interface is identical.
A strategy example
The canonical example of the strategy pattern is sort routines; over the years, numerous algorithms have been invented for sorting a collection of objects; quick sort, merge sort...
