Avoid Using InstanceOf with Visitor Pattern - Java

Question

I searched about this subjet arround here in Stack Overflow. I found the following solution:

Explanation of Visitor Pattern

Now, my case is simillar to this one. I need, however, to avoid the use of "instanceOf".

I have a game that has towers named MonkeyTower, CannonTower, OctoTower... and some other classes uses the instanceOf to compare.

Here's an example of a class that uses the instanceOf:

BloonsTower.java

public void mousePressed(Point p) {
        Tower t = null;
        selectedTower = towerInfo[ insertTowerIdx ].getTower();

        if( selectedTower instanceof MonkeyTower )
            t = tCreator.createMonkey();
        else if( selectedTower instanceof OctoTower )
            t = tCreator.createOctogonal();
        else if( selectedTower instanceof CannonTower )
            t = tCreator.createCannon();
        else if( selectedTower instanceof MortarTower )
            t = tCreator.createMortar();
        setMoney( money - towerInfo[ insertTowerIdx ].getPrice() );
        t.setPosition( p );
        world.addTower(t);
        currentState = new SelectTowerState();
    }

ManipulatorCreator.java

if( t instanceof MonkeyTower )
        return null;
    else if( t instanceof OctoTower )
        return new OctoManipulator( t );
    else if( t instanceof CannonTower )
        return null;
    else if( t instanceof MortarTower )
        return new MortarManipulator( (MortarTower)t );
    return man;

And GameWriter:

public void saveFile( File file, int round, int money, int lives, World m ) throws IOException {
    PrintWriter out = new PrintWriter( new BufferedWriter( new FileWriter( file) ) );

    out.println( round );
    out.println( money );
    out.println( lives );
    Tower []torres = m.getTowers();
    out.println( torres.length );   // escrever o nº de torres
    for( Tower t : torres ){
        Point p = t.getComponent().getPosicao();
        // escrever a posição e o tipo de torre
        out.print(p.x+"\t" + p.y+"\t" );
        if( t instanceof MonkeyTower )
            out.println( "macaco" );
        else if( t instanceof OctoTower )
            out.println( "octo" );
        else if( t instanceof CannonTower )
            out.println( "canhao" );
        else if( t instanceof MortarTower )
            out.println( "morteiro" );
    }

    out.close();
}

What i've created is a class for visitor that visits every tower:

public class TowerVisitor implements Visitor{

    public void visit(MonkeyTower monkey) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    }

    public void visit(CannonTower cannon) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    }

    public void visit(MortarTower mortar) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    }

    public void visit(OctoTower octo) {
        // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    }
}

And, in each tower I've created has a method accept that returns itself

Now, I'm stuck in what to put inside the method visit and how to use the pattern to switch all the instanceOf's.

Thanks.

Answer 1

You should use core Object Oriented Programming patterns, namely inheritance, not a visitor pattern. You have several different types of towers, and similar actions (create, manipulate, toString, etc.) that should be implemented differently for each type of tower. A classic example of inheritance.

public abstract class Tower {
  public abstract Tower create();
  public abstract Manipulator manipulate();
}

---

public class MortarTower extends Tower {
  @Override
  public MortarTower create() {
    return new MortarTower();
  }

  @Override
  public MortarManipulator manipulate() {
    return new MortarManipulator(this);
  }

  @Override
  public String toString() {
    return "morteiro";
  }
}

---

public void mousePressed(Point p) {
  selectedTower = towerInfo[insertTowerIdx].getTower();
  setMoney(money - towerInfo[insertTowerIdx].getPrice());
  Tower t = selectedTower.create();
  t.setPosition(p);
  world.addTower(t);
  currentState = new SelectTowerState();
}

And so on.