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Visitor Design Pattern in Java: Double dispatch (within a single hierarchy)

Problem."If you want to add a new Visitable object, you have to change the Visitor interface, and then implement that method in each of your Visitors."

Solution. With the ReflectiveVisitor, you only need one method in the Visitor interface - visit(Object). All other visit() methods can be added later as point-to-point coupling is required.

// The "element" hierarchy
interface Element {
    void accept(ReflectiveVisitor v);
}

class This implements Element {
    public void accept(ReflectiveVisitor v) {
        v.visit(this);
    }

    public String thiss() {
        return "This";
    }
}

class That implements Element {
    public void accept(ReflectiveVisitor v) {
        v.visit(this);
    }

    public String that() {
        return "That";
    }
}

class TheOther implements Element {
    public void accept(ReflectiveVisitor v) {
        v.visit(this);
    }

    public String theOther() {
        return "TheOther";
    }
}

// The "operation" hierarchy
abstract class ReflectiveVisitor {
    abstract public void visit(Object o);

    public void visitTheOther(TheOther e) {
        System.out.println("ReflectiveVisitor: do Base on " + e.theOther());
    }

    // 1. Look for visitElementClassName() in the current class
    // 2. Look for visitElementClassName() in superclasses
    // 3. Look for visitElementClassName() in interfaces
    // 4. Look for visitObject() in current class
    protected Method getMethod(Class source) {
        Class  clazz = source;
        Method methodName   = null;
        while (methodName == null  &&  clazz != Object.class) {
            String clazzName = clazz.getName();
            clazzName = "visit" + clazzName.substring(clazzName.lastIndexOf('.') + 1);
            try {
                methodName = getClass().getMethod(clazzName, clazz);
            } catch (NoSuchMethodException ex) {
                clazz = clazz.getSuperclass();
            }
        }
        if (clazz == Object.class) {
            // System.out.println( "Searching for interfaces" );
            Class[] interfaces = source.getInterfaces();
            for (Class intface : interfaces) {
                String interfaceName = intface.getName();
                interfaceName = "visit" + interfaceName.substring(interfaceName.lastIndexOf('.') + 1);
                try {
                    methodName = getClass().getMethod(interfaceName, intface);
                } catch (NoSuchMethodException ex) {
                    //ex.printStackTrace();
                }
            }
        }
        if (methodName == null)
            try {
                methodName = getClass().getMethod("visitObject", Object.class);
            } catch (Exception ex) {
                //ex.printStackTrace();
            }
        return methodName;
    }
}

class UpVisitor extends ReflectiveVisitor {
    public void visit(Object o) {
        try {
            getMethod(o.getClass()).invoke(this, o);
        } catch (Exception ex) {
            System.out.println( "UpVisitor - no appropriate visit() method" );
        }
    }

    public void visitThis(This element) {
        System.out.println("UpVisitor: do Up on " + element.thiss());
    }

    public void visitObject(Object o) {
        System.out.println("UpVisitor: generic visitObject() method");
    }
}

class DownVisitor extends ReflectiveVisitor {
    public void visit(Object o) {
        try {
            getMethod(o.getClass()).invoke(this, o);
        } catch (Exception ex) {
            System.out.println( "DownVisitor - no appropriate visit() method" );
        }
    }

    public void visitThat(That element) {
        System.out.println("DownVisitor: do Down on " + element.that());
    }
}

public class VisitorDemo {
    public static void main( String[] args ) {
        Element[] list = {new This(), new That(), new TheOther()};
        UpVisitor up = new UpVisitor();
        DownVisitor down = new DownVisitor();
        for (Element element : list) {
            element.accept(up);
        }
        for (Element element : list) {
            element.accept(down);
        }
    }
}

Output

UpVisitor: do Up on This
UpVisitor: generic visitObject() method
ReflectiveVisitor: do Base on TheOther
DownVisitor - no appropriate visit() method
DownVisitor: do Down on That
ReflectiveVisitor: do Base on TheOther

Code examples

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