The composite pattern allows complex tree-like structures to be built from simple components. These components, called composite objects, are able to behave sort of like a container and sort of like a variable, depending on whether they have child components. Composite objects are container objects, where the content may actually be another composite object.
Traditionally, each component in a composite object must be either a leaf node (that cannot contain other objects) or a composite node. The key is that both composite and leaf nodes can have the same interface. The following UML diagram is very simple:
This simple pattern, however, allows us to create complex arrangements of elements, all of which satisfy the interface of the component object. The following diagram depicts a concrete instance of such a complicated arrangement:
The composite pattern is commonly useful in file/folder-like trees. Regardless of whether a node in the tree is a normal file or a folder, it...