Public static data used throughout program

Question

Code examples are C# but this is a general OO question.

I know according to OO rules, class coupling should be minimised and members should be kept private wherever possible, etc.

Consider this example:

You are writing an esoteric program which has some sort of data set (I'm not talking about System.Data.DataSet) which is used in literally every facet of the program. In fact, the program basically exists just to load, display, manipulate, and save the data set. Furthermore, there can only ever be one data set loaded at any time, and it is loaded when the program opens.

If we follow OO rules strictly, we would have

public void ShowSomeGraphs(IData data)
{
  // do stuff with data which implements IData
}

however we could potentially store a public static Data member in Program, for example.

public void ShowSomeGraphs()
{
  // do stuff with Program.Data
}

On one hand, we have traded a slightly shorter function signature for vastly increased class coupling. On the other hand, we are no longer passing a Data parameter to practically every function, everywhere.

The right answer probably is: Avoid class coupling wherever possible. The local Data variables are just pointers so the memory overhead is negligible, and because the classes are decoupled they can be used elsewhere at a later date.

Though realistically speaking, the structure of the Data class will likely be phenomenally different in a different application, so it's not like you can just pull a class from this program and drop it in somewhere else without any tweaks. The extra time and effort required to write the classes in such a way that they can just be dropped in might be difficult to justify to a stakeholder.

I'm working on this sort of program now, and I have used the OO-canon approach: Data parameters are passed around where needed I have minimised class coupling with an IData interface to generalise the data set for future code re-use. Given the application, I'm almost certain this code won't ever be re-used. Without these extra interfaces and abstraction, the program would have worked exactly the same as far as the end user is concerned, but would have represented significantly less headaches and development time for me.

What do you think about this? Do you think it's justifiable to spend all the extra time to write the interfaces and generalisations to ensure classes are decoupled where possible, especially when you can't see the classes being use elsewhere later?

Answer 1

Don't agonise over it. Seriously.

Software paradigms/patterns are there to help us and not to be followed dogmatically.

You make it clear in your question that you consider the loose coupling overkill, and you can justify why. Therefore, don't use it.

Answer 2

How about using the singleton pattern to provide a method or read-only property to get the IData interface? This way you're only coupled to a very thin singleton class and all your interactions with the data set are done through the IData interface.

(I would definitely avoid the tight coupling. Even if you don't plan to do much with this app chances are that you will run into an issue during development which will force you to touch significantly more code than if you accessed the data via an interface.)

Code sample of the singleton solution proposed above:

using System;

public class MyClass {
    public static void Main() {
        // simple usage:
        Console.WriteLine("From Main: " + Singleton.Instance.IMyData.GetData());
        // client code from another type:
        new ClientObj().DoWork();
        Console.ReadKey();
    }
}

public sealed class Singleton {
    // standard singleton stuff:
    private static readonly Singleton _instance = new Singleton();
    private Singleton(){}
    public static Singleton Instance {get { return _instance; }}
    // data interface stuff:
    private MyData _myData = new MyData();
    public IData IMyData {get { return _myData; }}
}

// the interface:
public interface IData {
    string GetData();
}

// concrete implementation of the data class
public class MyData : IData {
    public string GetData() {return "Hello World!";}
}

// example of a type using the singleton and the IData interface
public class ClientObj {
    public void DoWork() {
        IData data = Singleton.Instance.IMyData;
        string str = data.GetData();
        Console.WriteLine("From other obj: " + str);
    }
}

Some caveats: The code sample above is completely stripped down to show the concept of a singleton and shared interface. There is no thread safety implemented, there is no initialization of the data object etc.

Answer 3

Well, there's one big assumption in your text: There will always only be one data set in the program. Are you sure that condition will hold for all time? There was a time where word processors could only hold one text at a time. Today it's standard to be able to have several files open at once. I'd also not be surprised if the first web browsers could only open one web page at a time. Today nobody would use a web browser which could not have several pages open at the same time. I think the sort of object where you can say there will be for certain only one of it in the program, ever, is quite rare. Indeed, the only thing which I would make a global object or singleton would be object factories.

On the other hand, passing the object around for each function call seems to be overkill to me, too. Therefore I would go for the middle ground: Have the objects remember that "global" object, so you only have to pass it via the constructor. This limits each single object to one Data object, but still allows you to easily have several Data objects in your program should you ever decide to.