ref: https://refactoring.guru/replace-inheritance-with-delegation
- allows an object to pass (or delegate) a task to another helper object instead of handling it itself
- promotes separation of concerns and allows for more flexible and reusable code
How It Works
- a delegator class contains a reference to a delegate
- the delegator forwards (delegates) certain operations to the delegate
- the delegate handles the actual implementation of the delegated behaviour
Common Use Cases
- user interface design: delegates are often used in UI frameworks to handle events
- event handling: delegates can be used as callbacks mechanisms in event-driven programming
- code reusability: instead of subclassing, delegation allows multiple objets to share behaviour by using different delegate implementations
- asynchronous programming: delegation allows tasks to be performed asynchronously without blocking the main thread
Caveat
- Increased complexity due to indirect method calls