Key Words: Behavioral design pattern, command design pattern in C++
Topics at a glance:
- Understanding a behavioral design pattern with command pattern
- How we implemented command in classic C++ (C++ 98) way
- How we should implement command in modern C++ way.
- Let us understand how GUI elements like Menu and Menu Items work, and how a button click execute actions?
Behavioral design pattern: Command design pattern in C++
In this chapter we will see how to implement command design pattern, which is a behavioral pattern, in modern C++. I won’t be talking much about command pattern itself. But, I will point out the important aspects of command pattern.
Command pattern’s core is an abstract base class which declares at least one pure virtual member function called execute(). One has to define concrete derived classes that actually implements this method execute(). The instances of such concrete classes are called as command objects. Command objects abstract the command/request itself into objects. That is the philosophy behind command pattern. The one who raises the request only knows when to raise one command/request, but will be completely unaware of which object instances of what class types are going to actually execute the request and what all resources are required for executing this command. So, the requester simply initiates a command. This command will be first received by the command object as the initiator invokes this execute method. Command object then delegates the request to the actual object that realises this functionality by invoking the call back member function on that final receiver object.
For implementing the execute method, command objects require the following information:
- The object instance that implements the actual functionality to realize the command
- The method that should be invoked on the object instance
- The parameters, if any, that must be passed into that method to execute it correctly
Command objects must be configured with these information, either at time of construction or at least before invoking the execute().
Basically command object elegantly hides the object/entity that initiates a command/request from the object that realizes the command. That said, command object works as an intermediary object between the initiator and the realizer, by making requests into objects.
Now, I will demonstrate the C++ implementation of a typical command pattern, taking the following example:
A document editor application that provides the user with menu-based interface to execute the commands such as opening a document, editing a document (cut, paste, copy) and finally closing the document and exiting the application. This is designed based on command pattern.
The main components of this design are:
- Application class
- Document class
- Menu class
- Menu Item class
- Command class (abstract base class with a pure virtual execute() method)
- Concrete derived classes for releasing the commands open, close, edit:copy, paste, cut
Let us see how this is implemented in classic C++ (C++ 98 or before modern C++).
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 | #include <iostream> #include <string> #include <memory> #include <vector> using namespace std; class Command { public: virtual ~Command(){} virtual void execute() = 0; }; class Menu_Item { private: Command *command_object_; string name_; public: Menu_Item(const char* const name) : name_{name} { command_object_ = nullptr; } void add_command_object(Command *command_object) { command_object_ = command_object; } int click() { int status = -1; if(command_object_ != nullptr) { command_object_->execute(); status = 0; } return status; } string& get_name() { return name_; } }; class Menu { private: string name_; vector<Menu_Item*> menu_items; public: Menu(const char* const name): name_{name} { } void add_menu_item(Menu_Item *menu_item) { menu_items.push_back(menu_item); } int hover() { int choice; int count = 0; for (auto item : menu_items) { cout << item->get_name() << " : " << count++ << endl; } cout << "Enter your Menu Item choice : "; cin >> choice; if( (choice >= 0) &&(choice <= menu_items.size()) ) { return menu_items[choice]->click(); } } string& get_name() { return name_; } }; class Document { private: string name_; public: typedef void (Document::*doc_function)(); Document(const char* const name): name_{name}{} ~Document() { close(); } void open() { cout << "Document : " << name_ << " is open" << endl; } void close() { cout << "Document : " << name_ << " is closed" << endl; } //void copy(int start, int end, string &copied_text) void copy() { cout << "copying..." << endl; // copy from start to end to copied_text cout << "copy complete" << endl; } //void paste(int position, string& insert_text) void paste() { cout << "pasting..." << endl; cout << "pasting complete" << endl; } //void cut(int start, int end, string &extracted_text) void cut() { cout << "cutting..." << endl; // copy from start to end to copied_text cout << "cut complete" << endl; } }; class Open_Document_Command : public Command { private: Document* document_; Document::doc_function function; public: Open_Document_Command(Document* document, Document::doc_function call_back): document_{document}, function{call_back} { } void execute() override { (document_->*function)(); } }; class Close_Document_Command : public Command { private: Document* document_; Document::doc_function function; public: Close_Document_Command(Document* document, Document::doc_function call_back): document_{document}, function{call_back} { } void execute() override { (document_->*function)(); } }; class Copy_Document_Command : public Command { private: Document* document_; Document::doc_function function; public: Copy_Document_Command(Document* document, Document::doc_function call_back): document_{document}, function{call_back} { } void execute() override { (document_->*function)(); } }; class Paste_Document_Command : public Command { private: Document* document_; Document::doc_function function; public: Paste_Document_Command(Document* document, Document::doc_function call_back): document_{document}, function{call_back} { } void execute() override { (document_->*function)(); } }; class Cut_Document_Command : public Command { private: Document* document_; Document::doc_function function; public: Cut_Document_Command(Document* document, Document::doc_function call_back): document_{document}, function{call_back} { } void execute() override { (document_->*function)(); } }; class Application { private: vector<Menu*> menus; Document *document; Menu *file_menu; Menu *edit_menu; Menu_Item *open_item; Menu_Item *close_item; Menu_Item *paste_item; Menu_Item *copy_item; Menu_Item *cut_item; Open_Document_Command *open_cmd_object; Close_Document_Command *close_cmd_object; Paste_Document_Command *paste_cmd_object; Copy_Document_Command *copy_cmd_object; Cut_Document_Command *cut_cmd_object; public: Application() { string doc_name; cout << "Document editor app" << endl; // 1. open a document first for editing cout << "Enter the file name to edit" << endl; cin >> doc_name; document = new Document(doc_name.c_str()); // 2. add Menus "File" and "Edit" file_menu = new Menu("File"); open_item = new Menu_Item("Open"); open_cmd_object = new Open_Document_Command(document, &Document::open); open_item->add_command_object(open_cmd_object); file_menu->add_menu_item(open_item); close_item = new Menu_Item("Close"); close_cmd_object = new Close_Document_Command(document, &Document::close); close_item->add_command_object(close_cmd_object); file_menu->add_menu_item(close_item); edit_menu = new Menu("Edit"); copy_item = new Menu_Item("Copy"); copy_cmd_object = new Copy_Document_Command(document, &Document::copy); copy_item->add_command_object(copy_cmd_object); edit_menu->add_menu_item(copy_item); paste_item = new Menu_Item("Paste"); paste_cmd_object = new Paste_Document_Command(document, &Document::paste); paste_item->add_command_object(paste_cmd_object); edit_menu->add_menu_item(paste_item); cut_item = new Menu_Item("Cut"); cut_cmd_object = new Cut_Document_Command(document, &Document::cut); cut_item->add_command_object(cut_cmd_object); edit_menu->add_menu_item(cut_item); menus.push_back(file_menu); menus.push_back(edit_menu); } int select_menu() { int choice = 0; int end_app = 0; cout << "Enter your Menu choice" << endl; for(auto menu : menus) { cout << menu->get_name() << " : " << choice++ << endl; } end_app = choice; cout << "Exit : " << end_app << endl; cin >> choice; if( (choice >= 0) &&(choice < menus.size())) { menus[choice]->hover(); } else if(choice == end_app) { end_application(); return 1; } return 0; } void end_application() { // Delete the items in the reverse order // How to close the document ? // 2. delete the command_objects created delete open_cmd_object; delete close_cmd_object; delete paste_cmd_object; delete copy_cmd_object; delete cut_cmd_object; // 3. Delete menu items created delete open_item; delete close_item; delete paste_item; delete copy_item; delete cut_item; // 4. delete menus delete file_menu; delete edit_menu; // 5. finally delete document delete document; cout << "Application exiting..." << endl; } }; |
Here, everything is proper. But did you observe that in the end it is essential to delete all the new created objects from free store. This look untidy and not at all is complying to the recommended modern C++ way. Let us use the elegant destructors and std::unique_ptrs and std::shared_ptrs for doing this in the modern C++ way.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 | #include <iostream> #include <string> #include <memory> #include <vector> using namespace std; class Command { public: virtual ~Command(){} virtual void execute() = 0; }; class Menu_Item { private: unique_ptr<Command> command_object_; string name_; public: Menu_Item(const char* const name) : name_{name}, command_object_{nullptr} { } ~Menu_Item() { cout << "Menu_Item : " << name_ << " destroyed" << endl; command_object_.reset(); } void add_command_object(Command *command_object) { command_object_.reset(command_object); } int click() { int status = -1; if(command_object_ != nullptr) { command_object_->execute(); status = 0; } return status; } string& get_name() { return name_; } }; class Menu { private: string name_; vector<unique_ptr<Menu_Item>> menu_items; public: Menu(const char* const name): name_{name} { } ~Menu() { cout << "Menu " << name_ << " destroyed" << endl; for (auto &item : menu_items) { item.reset(); } } void add_menu_item(unique_ptr<Menu_Item> menu_item) { menu_items.push_back(std::move(menu_item)); } int hover() { int choice; int count = 0; for (auto &item : menu_items) { cout << item->get_name() << " : " << count++ << endl; } cout << "Enter your Menu Item choice : "; cin >> choice; if( (choice >= 0) &&(choice <= menu_items.size()) ) { return menu_items[choice]->click(); } } // overloaded version // used for mimicking a menu item click by the application int hover(int choice) { return menu_items[choice]->click(); } string& get_name() { return name_; } }; class Application; class Document { private: string name_; Application *app_; void (Application::*notify)(); public: typedef void (Document::*doc_function)(); Document( const char* const name, Application *app, void (Application::*app_notify)() ): name_{name}, app_{app}, notify{app_notify} { /* do nothing */ } ~Document() { close(); } void open() { cout << "Document : " << name_ << " is open" << endl; } void close() { cout << "Document : " << name_ << " is closed" << endl; // notify the application (app_->*notify)(); } //void copy(int start, int end, string &copied_text) void copy() { cout << "copying..." << endl; // copy from start to end to copied_text cout << "copy complete" << endl; } //void paste(int position, string& insert_text) void paste() { cout << "pasting..." << endl; cout << "pasting complete" << endl; } //void cut(int start, int end, string &extracted_text) void cut() { cout << "cutting..." << endl; // copy from start to end to copied_text cout << "cut complete" << endl; } }; class Open_Document_Command : public Command { private: shared_ptr<Document> document_; Document::doc_function function; public: Open_Document_Command(shared_ptr<Document> document, Document::doc_function call_back): document_{document}, function{call_back} { } void execute() override { (document_.get()->*function)(); } }; class Close_Document_Command : public Command { private: shared_ptr<Document> document_; Document::doc_function function; public: Close_Document_Command(shared_ptr<Document> document, Document::doc_function call_back): document_{document}, function{call_back} { } void execute() override { (document_.get()->*function)(); } }; class Copy_Document_Command : public Command { private: shared_ptr<Document> document_; Document::doc_function function; public: Copy_Document_Command(shared_ptr<Document> document, Document::doc_function call_back): document_{document}, function{call_back} { } void execute() override { (document_.get()->*function)(); } }; class Paste_Document_Command : public Command { private: shared_ptr<Document> document_; Document::doc_function function; public: Paste_Document_Command(shared_ptr<Document> document, Document::doc_function call_back): document_{document}, function{call_back} { } void execute() override { (document_.get()->*function)(); } }; class Cut_Document_Command : public Command { private: shared_ptr<Document> document_; Document::doc_function function; public: Cut_Document_Command(shared_ptr<Document> document, Document::doc_function call_back): document_{document}, function{call_back} { } void execute() override { (document_.get()->*function)(); } }; class Application { private: vector<unique_ptr<Menu>> menus; enum class signal{app_launched = 0, app_exit, user_interrupt, other, no_trigger}; signal trigger; public: Application() { string doc_name; trigger = signal::app_launched; cout << "Document editor app" << endl; // 1. open a document first for editing cout << "Enter the file name to edit" << endl; cin >> doc_name; shared_ptr<Document> document = make_shared<Document>(doc_name.c_str(), this, &Application::notify_doc_close); // 2. add Menus "File" and "Edit" unique_ptr<Menu> file_menu = make_unique<Menu>("File"); unique_ptr<Menu_Item> open_item = make_unique<Menu_Item>("Open"); Open_Document_Command *open_cmd_object = new Open_Document_Command(document, &Document::open); open_item->add_command_object(open_cmd_object); file_menu->add_menu_item(std::move(open_item)); unique_ptr<Menu_Item> close_item = make_unique<Menu_Item> ("Close"); Close_Document_Command *close_cmd_object = new Close_Document_Command(document, &Document::close); close_item->add_command_object(close_cmd_object); file_menu->add_menu_item(std::move(close_item)); unique_ptr<Menu> edit_menu = make_unique<Menu>("Edit"); unique_ptr<Menu_Item> copy_item = make_unique<Menu_Item>("Copy"); Copy_Document_Command *copy_cmd_object = new Copy_Document_Command(document, &Document::copy); copy_item->add_command_object(copy_cmd_object); edit_menu->add_menu_item(std::move(copy_item)); unique_ptr<Menu_Item> paste_item = make_unique<Menu_Item>("Paste"); Paste_Document_Command *paste_cmd_object = new Paste_Document_Command(document, &Document::paste); paste_item->add_command_object(paste_cmd_object); edit_menu->add_menu_item(std::move(paste_item)); unique_ptr<Menu_Item> cut_item = make_unique<Menu_Item>("Cut"); Cut_Document_Command *cut_cmd_object = new Cut_Document_Command(document, &Document::cut); cut_item->add_command_object(cut_cmd_object); edit_menu->add_menu_item(std::move(cut_item)); menus.push_back(std::move(file_menu)); menus.push_back(std::move(edit_menu)); } int select_menu() { int choice = 0; int end_app = 0; cout << "Enter your Menu choice" << endl; for(auto &menu : menus) { cout << menu->get_name() << " : " << choice++ << endl; } end_app = choice; cout << "Exit : " << end_app << endl; cin >> choice; if( (choice >= 0) &&(choice < menus.size())) { menus[choice]->hover(); } else if(choice == end_app) { // set the trigger trigger = signal::app_exit; end_application(); return 1; } return 0; } void notify_doc_close() { cout << "Application : document close() detected" << endl; if(trigger != signal::app_exit) // not supporting re-opening or opening another document { end_application(); } } void end_application() { // do clean up // release back the memory resources to free store for(auto &menu : menus) { menu.reset(); } cout << "Application exiting..." << endl; } }; int main() { Application new_app; int end_app = 0; while(end_app == 0) { end_app = new_app.select_menu(); } cout << "Main Ends" << endl; } |
Want to see the result?
Document editor app
Enter the file name to edit
hello
Enter your Menu choice
File : 0
Edit : 1
Exit : 2
0
Open : 0
Close : 1
Enter your Menu Item choice : 0
Document : hello is open
Enter your Menu choice
File : 0
Edit : 1
Exit : 2
1
Copy : 0
Paste : 1
Cut : 2
Enter your Menu Item choice : 0
copying...
copy complete
Enter your Menu choice
File : 0
Edit : 1
Exit : 2
1
Copy : 0
Paste : 1
Cut : 2
Enter your Menu Item choice : 1
pasting...
pasting complete
Enter your Menu choice
File : 0
Edit : 1
Exit : 2
2
Menu File destroyed
Menu_Item : Open destroyed
Menu_Item : Close destroyed
Menu Edit destroyed
Menu_Item : Copy destroyed
Menu_Item : Paste destroyed
Menu_Item : Cut destroyed
Document : hello is closed
Application : document close() detected
Application exiting...
Main Ends
So, what’s happening? Let’s analyze step by step.
- Application greeted the user with App name and asked to enter the file name to open for editing.
- User entered the file name ‘hello’
- Application gives user a choice to select a menu. ‘0’ for File menu and ‘1’ for Edit menu
- User select File menu
- Application gives user another choice to select a menu item. ‘0’ for open, ‘1’ for close
- User selects open. Application opens the file ‘hello’ for editing
- Application gives user another choice to select the menu again.
- User selects Edit menu this time
- Application gives user a choice to select a menu item from Edit menu. ‘0’ for copy, ‘1’ for paste, ‘2’ for cut
- User selects copy, application executes copy.
- Application gives user another choice to select a menu again, for which user selects Edit menu and in turn select paste operation from Edit menu.
- Application executes paste
- Application gives user a choice to select a menu.
- This time user selects Exit option ‘2’.
- Application runs the clean up code. Clean up code just calls the reset() member function of unique_ptr.
- This in turn calls the destructors of each of the objects and elegantly deletes and releases back the memory
- In course of object deletion, destructor of Document class is also called which results in closing the file itself.
This is how you have to implement Command Design Pattern in modern C++.
Enjoyed the chapter? Let me know in the comments below. Thanks 🙂
Command pattern is more easily implemented using functors (std::function, std::bind).
Okay Markew2013, Thanks for letting me know. Will look into it. 🙂
Coding Example is good. But try to make theory or introduction bit short. Code comments are okay.
Okay. Will consider your feedback seriously. Thanks dear reader.