Design Patterns - Filter Pattern

Filter pattern or Criteria pattern is a design pattern that enables developers to filter a set of objects using different criteria and chaining them in a decoupled way through logical operations. This type of design pattern comes under structural pattern as this pattern combines multiple criteria to obtain single criteria.

Implementation

We re going to create a Person object, Criteria interface and concrete classes implementing this interface to filter pst of Person objects. CriteriaPatternDemo, our demo class uses Criteria objects to filter List of Person objects based on various criteria and their combinations.

Step 1

Create a class on which criteria is to be appped.

Person.java

pubpc class Person {
	
   private String name;
   private String gender;
   private String maritalStatus;

   pubpc Person(String name, String gender, String maritalStatus){
      this.name = name;
      this.gender = gender;
      this.maritalStatus = maritalStatus;		
   }

   pubpc String getName() {
      return name;
   }
   pubpc String getGender() {
      return gender;
   }
   pubpc String getMaritalStatus() {
      return maritalStatus;
   }	
}

Step 2

Create an interface for Criteria.

Criteria.java

import java.util.List;

pubpc interface Criteria {
   pubpc List<Person> meetCriteria(List<Person> persons);
}

Step 3

Create concrete classes implementing the Criteria interface.

CriteriaMale.java

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

pubpc class CriteriaMale implements Criteria {

   @Override
   pubpc List<Person> meetCriteria(List<Person> persons) {
      List<Person> malePersons = new ArrayList<Person>(); 
      
      for (Person person : persons) {
         if(person.getGender().equalsIgnoreCase("MALE")){
            malePersons.add(person);
         }
      }
      return malePersons;
   }
}

CriteriaFemale.java

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

pubpc class CriteriaFemale implements Criteria {

   @Override
   pubpc List<Person> meetCriteria(List<Person> persons) {
      List<Person> femalePersons = new ArrayList<Person>(); 
      
      for (Person person : persons) {
         if(person.getGender().equalsIgnoreCase("FEMALE")){
            femalePersons.add(person);
         }
      }
      return femalePersons;
   }
}

CriteriaSingle.java

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

pubpc class CriteriaSingle implements Criteria {

   @Override
   pubpc List<Person> meetCriteria(List<Person> persons) {
      List<Person> singlePersons = new ArrayList<Person>(); 
      
      for (Person person : persons) {
         if(person.getMaritalStatus().equalsIgnoreCase("SINGLE")){
            singlePersons.add(person);
         }
      }
      return singlePersons;
   }
}

AndCriteria.java

import java.util.List;

pubpc class AndCriteria implements Criteria {

   private Criteria criteria;
   private Criteria otherCriteria;

   pubpc AndCriteria(Criteria criteria, Criteria otherCriteria) {
      this.criteria = criteria;
      this.otherCriteria = otherCriteria; 
   }

   @Override
   pubpc List<Person> meetCriteria(List<Person> persons) {
   
      List<Person> firstCriteriaPersons = criteria.meetCriteria(persons);		
      return otherCriteria.meetCriteria(firstCriteriaPersons);
   }
}

OrCriteria.java

import java.util.List;

pubpc class OrCriteria implements Criteria {

   private Criteria criteria;
   private Criteria otherCriteria;

   pubpc OrCriteria(Criteria criteria, Criteria otherCriteria) {
      this.criteria = criteria;
      this.otherCriteria = otherCriteria; 
   }

   @Override
   pubpc List<Person> meetCriteria(List<Person> persons) {
      List<Person> firstCriteriaItems = criteria.meetCriteria(persons);
      List<Person> otherCriteriaItems = otherCriteria.meetCriteria(persons);

      for (Person person : otherCriteriaItems) {
         if(!firstCriteriaItems.contains(person)){
            firstCriteriaItems.add(person);
         }
      }	
      return firstCriteriaItems;
   }
}

Step4

Use different Criteria and their combination to filter out persons.

CriteriaPatternDemo.java

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

pubpc class CriteriaPatternDemo {
   pubpc static void main(String[] args) {
      List<Person> persons = new ArrayList<Person>();

      persons.add(new Person("Robert","Male", "Single"));
      persons.add(new Person("John", "Male", "Married"));
      persons.add(new Person("Laura", "Female", "Married"));
      persons.add(new Person("Diana", "Female", "Single"));
      persons.add(new Person("Mike", "Male", "Single"));
      persons.add(new Person("Bobby", "Male", "Single"));

      Criteria male = new CriteriaMale();
      Criteria female = new CriteriaFemale();
      Criteria single = new CriteriaSingle();
      Criteria singleMale = new AndCriteria(single, male);
      Criteria singleOrFemale = new OrCriteria(single, female);

      System.out.println("Males: ");
      printPersons(male.meetCriteria(persons));

      System.out.println("
Females: ");
      printPersons(female.meetCriteria(persons));

      System.out.println("
Single Males: ");
      printPersons(singleMale.meetCriteria(persons));

      System.out.println("
Single Or Females: ");
      printPersons(singleOrFemale.meetCriteria(persons));
   }

   pubpc static void printPersons(List<Person> persons){
   
      for (Person person : persons) {
         System.out.println("Person : [ Name : " + person.getName() + ", Gender : " + person.getGender() + ", Marital Status : " + person.getMaritalStatus() + " ]");
      }
   }      
}

Step 5

Verify the output.

Males: 
Person : [ Name : Robert, Gender : Male, Marital Status : Single ]
Person : [ Name : John, Gender : Male, Marital Status : Married ]
Person : [ Name : Mike, Gender : Male, Marital Status : Single ]
Person : [ Name : Bobby, Gender : Male, Marital Status : Single ]

Females: 
Person : [ Name : Laura, Gender : Female, Marital Status : Married ]
Person : [ Name : Diana, Gender : Female, Marital Status : Single ]

Single Males: 
Person : [ Name : Robert, Gender : Male, Marital Status : Single ]
Person : [ Name : Mike, Gender : Male, Marital Status : Single ]
Person : [ Name : Bobby, Gender : Male, Marital Status : Single ]

Single Or Females: 
Person : [ Name : Robert, Gender : Male, Marital Status : Single ]
Person : [ Name : Diana, Gender : Female, Marital Status : Single ]
Person : [ Name : Mike, Gender : Male, Marital Status : Single ]
Person : [ Name : Bobby, Gender : Male, Marital Status : Single ]
Person : [ Name : Laura, Gender : Female, Marital Status : Married ]