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The Introduction Object factories are one of those extremely useful but often times overlooked constructs in programming.  To put it simply, object factories are like virtual functions but instead of dynamically choosing which function gets executed at runtime, object factories dynamically choose which class gets instantiated at runtime. If you don't have a good understanding of object factories (sometimes also called pluggable factories) then I highly recommend reading Industrial Strength Pluggable Factories and Why Pluggable Factories Rock My Multiplayer World before continuing this article. All set?  Good, then let's get started. The Need We already stated that object factories delay the choice of which object is created until runtime.  Before we go any further, it might be beneficial to list some examples of when need to delay the choice until runtime.  Here are just a few: Scripting language support – The game must decide which command class to create and execute based on text commands entered by the user. Serialization - One type of serialization would be communicating via TCP/IP.  The receiving side must be able to dynamically create the proper message class depending on the type of message it has just received. Executing commands - Many games allow users to dynamically rebind keys to other commands.  Pressing the 'A' key should be able to create and execute the command of the user's choice. To decreasing class dependencies – By not hard-coding the which class to instantiate we can greatly reduce class dependencies, as classes no longer need to know about other classes in order to create them.  This can result in greatly decreased compile times. There are of course many other instances where object factories are useful, but I won't bore you with them all.  Instead, let's get on to something more exciting. The Implementation OK, now that we know when object factories are useful it's time to figure out how to actually implement one.  Below we have an object factory in its most simplistic form. class ShapeFactory { public: Shape *Create(int shape) { if (shape == SQUARE) return new Square; else if (shape == CIRCLE) return new Circle; else if (shape == TRIANGLE) return new Triangle; } }; Not much to it, really.  The ShapeFactory class has a Create method which allows us to create a Square, Circle, or Triangle class simply by passing the appropriate unique identifier, in this case an integer.  This integer value could be hard-coded or passed in from an outside source such as a TCP/IP stream, a script file, or from the player himself. The syntax to use our sample object factory class is simple enough: ShapeFactory shape_factory; Shape *shape1 = shape_factory.Create(TRIANGLE); Shape *shape2 = shape_factory.Create(SQUARE); Improving our object factory

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