Flyweight in Java

Flyweight is a structural design pattern that allows programs to support vast quantities of objects by keeping their memory consumption low.

The pattern achieves it by sharing parts of object state between multiple objects. In other words, the Flyweight saves RAM by caching the same data used by different objects.

Learn more about Flyweight

Complexity:

Popularity:

Usage examples: The Flyweight pattern has a single purpose: minimizing memory intake. If your program doesn’t struggle with a shortage of RAM, then you might just ignore this pattern for a while.

Examples of Flyweight in core Java libraries:

java.lang.Integer#valueOf(int) (also Boolean, Byte, Character, Short, Long and BigDecimal)

Identification: Flyweight can be recognized by a creation method that returns cached objects instead of creating new.

Rendering a forest

In this example, we’re going to render a forest (1.000.000 trees)! Each tree will be represented by its own object that has some state (coordinates, texture and so on). Although the program does its primary job, naturally, it consumes a lot of RAM.

The reason is simple: too many tree objects contain duplicate data (name, texture, color). That’s why we can apply the Flyweight pattern and store these values inside separate flyweight objects (the TreeType class). Now, instead of storing the same data in thousands of Tree objects, we’re going to reference one of the flyweight objects with a particular set of values.

The client code isn’t going to notice anything since the complexity of reusing flyweight objects is buried inside a flyweight factory.

trees

trees/Tree.java: Contains state unique for each tree

package refactoring_guru.flyweight.example.trees;

import java.awt.*;

public class Tree {
    private int x;
    private int y;
    private TreeType type;

    public Tree(int x, int y, TreeType type) {
        this.x = x;
        this.y = y;
        this.type = type;
    }

    public void draw(Graphics g) {
        type.draw(g, x, y);
    }
}

trees/TreeType.java: Contains state shared by several trees

package refactoring_guru.flyweight.example.trees;

import java.awt.*;

public class TreeType {
    private String name;
    private Color color;
    private String otherTreeData;

    public TreeType(String name, Color color, String otherTreeData) {
        this.name = name;
        this.color = color;
        this.otherTreeData = otherTreeData;
    }

    public void draw(Graphics g, int x, int y) {
        g.setColor(Color.BLACK);
        g.fillRect(x - 1, y, 3, 5);
        g.setColor(color);
        g.fillOval(x - 5, y - 10, 10, 10);
    }
}

trees/TreeFactory.java: Encapsulates complexity of flyweight creation

package refactoring_guru.flyweight.example.trees;

import java.awt.*;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;

public class TreeFactory {
    static Map<String, TreeType> treeTypes = new HashMap<>();

    public static TreeType getTreeType(String name, Color color, String otherTreeData) {
        TreeType result = treeTypes.get(name);
        if (result == null) {
            result = new TreeType(name, color, otherTreeData);
            treeTypes.put(name, result);
        }
        return result;
    }
}

forest

forest/Forest.java: Forest, which we draw

package refactoring_guru.flyweight.example.forest;

import refactoring_guru.flyweight.example.trees.Tree;
import refactoring_guru.flyweight.example.trees.TreeFactory;
import refactoring_guru.flyweight.example.trees.TreeType;

import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

public class Forest extends JFrame {
    private List<Tree> trees = new ArrayList<>();

    public void plantTree(int x, int y, String name, Color color, String otherTreeData) {
        TreeType type = TreeFactory.getTreeType(name, color, otherTreeData);
        Tree tree = new Tree(x, y, type);
        trees.add(tree);
    }

    @Override
    public void paint(Graphics graphics) {
        for (Tree tree : trees) {
            tree.draw(graphics);
        }
    }
}

Demo.java: Client code

package refactoring_guru.flyweight.example;

import refactoring_guru.flyweight.example.forest.Forest;

import java.awt.*;

public class Demo {
    static int CANVAS_SIZE = 500;
    static int TREES_TO_DRAW = 1000000;
    static int TREE_TYPES = 2;

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Forest forest = new Forest();
        for (int i = 0; i < Math.floor(TREES_TO_DRAW / TREE_TYPES); i++) {
            forest.plantTree(random(0, CANVAS_SIZE), random(0, CANVAS_SIZE),
                    "Summer Oak", Color.GREEN, "Oak texture stub");
            forest.plantTree(random(0, CANVAS_SIZE), random(0, CANVAS_SIZE),
                    "Autumn Oak", Color.ORANGE, "Autumn Oak texture stub");
        }
        forest.setSize(CANVAS_SIZE, CANVAS_SIZE);
        forest.setVisible(true);

        System.out.println(TREES_TO_DRAW + " trees drawn");
        System.out.println("---------------------");
        System.out.println("Memory usage:");
        System.out.println("Tree size (8 bytes) * " + TREES_TO_DRAW);
        System.out.println("+ TreeTypes size (~30 bytes) * " + TREE_TYPES + "");
        System.out.println("---------------------");
        System.out.println("Total: " + ((TREES_TO_DRAW * 8 + TREE_TYPES * 30) / 1024 / 1024) +
                "MB (instead of " + ((TREES_TO_DRAW * 38) / 1024 / 1024) + "MB)");
    }

    private static int random(int min, int max) {
        return min + (int) (Math.random() * ((max - min) + 1));
    }
}

OutputDemo.png: Screenshot

OutputDemo.txt: RAM usage stats

1000000 trees drawn
---------------------
Memory usage:
Tree size (8 bytes) * 1000000
+ TreeTypes size (~30 bytes) * 2
---------------------
Total: 7MB (instead of 36MB)