Decide what constructor call based on user input

Question

I would need to ask the user how many sides has the Figure he wants to draw, then call the right constructor to instantiate the object.

Below is my attempt to solve the answer using IF statements (or I could have used a switch) , but I don't know if it's the best way to do this, possibly with Java inheritance and polymorphism.

All the classes extends the class Figure.

CLASSES DIAGRAM:

      --------------- Figure ---------------
      ^         ^             ^            ^
      |         |             |            |
      |         |             |            |
   Circle    Triangle      Rectangle     Exagone

MAIN CLASS:

import java.util.Scanner;

class Draw {

   static void main(String[] args){

       Scanner userInput = new Scanner(System.in);
       int num_sides;

       //user input
       System.out.println("How many sides has the figure you want to draw?");   
       num_sides = userInput.nextInt();


       //---> deciding what constructor to call with if statements

       if(num_sides == 0){
          Figure f1 = new Circle();
       }
       else if(num_sides == 3){
          Figure f1 = new Triangle(); 
       }
       //...
       else{
          System.out.println("Error. Invalid sides number");
       }


   }
}

CLASSES CODE:

class Figure{

    private int sides;

    public Figure(int num_sides){
       sides = num_sides;
    }
}


class Circle extends Figure{

   public Circle(){
      super(0);
   }

}

//... all the other classes has the same structure of Circle

Answer 1

Factory Methods

Have you considered the Factory Method Pattern? Basically, you have a method that's something like this:

public Figure createInstance(int numSides) {
    Figure figure = null;

    switch(numSides) {
    case 0:
        figure = new Circle();
        break;
    case 3:
        // etc...
        // Make a case for each valid number of sides
        // Don't forget to put a "break;" after each case!
    default:
        // Not a valid shape; print your error message
    }
    return figure;
}

And let that factory method do the deciding instead.