Characteristic Values

Name: Characteristic Values (Also Known as Colin's Pattern)

Intent: The characteristics and of things are commonly known and fixed allowing them to be captured using the attributes in a class . This pattern is useful when the number of characteristics is unknown or subject to change.

The structure for this pattern in built on the specification pattern. Consider a car manufacturer model where model are offered with extra features. These features can be captured by using an specification class of features. The actual car is associated to a specification class which specifies the features it offers. Thus instead of having multiple classes of features we can have a flexible model to capture what the actual model of car is fitted with.