The State pattern
The State pattern deals with state management concerning a particular object and, more specifically, how to make an object behave differently based on its inner state. You have an object similar to the Originator object that you learned about in the Memento pattern. Then, at runtime, you change its internal state and the object will behave differently when used by the client.
You can think of this pattern as having a state machine that changes the behavior of an object when its internal state changes. Because you will be placing logic statements based on the object's state parameter, it is useful if you want to implement inheritance without actually defining subclasses.
We'll explain in detail when to use this pattern.
When to use the State pattern?
You can use the State pattern in the following cases:
- You have an object that responds differently depending on its internal state: Say you have an object that operates internally based on...