Strategy Pattern with Type Reflection affecting Performances ?
- by Aurélien Ribon
Hello !
I am building graphs. A graph consists of nodes linked each other with links (indeed my dear).
In order to assign a given behavior to each node, I implemented the strategy pattern.
class Node {
public BaseNodeBehavior Behavior {get; set;}
}
As a result, in many parts of the application, I am extensively using type reflection to know which behavior a node is.
if (node.Behavior is NodeDataOutputBehavior)
workOnOutputNode(node) ....
My graph can get thousands of nodes.
Is type reflection greatly affecting performances ?
Should I use something else than the strategy pattern ?
I'm using strategy because I need behavior inheritance. For example, basically, a behavior can be Data or Operator, a Data behavior can IO, Const or Intermediate and finally an IO behavior can be Input or Output.
So if I use an enumeration, I wont be able to test for a node behavior to be of data kind, I will need to test it to be [Input, Output, Const or Intermediate]. And if later I want to add another behavior of Data kind, I'm screwed, every data-testing method will need to be changed.
