Using the Strategy Pattern to Keep Your Code Sane
Today I want to talk about a design pattern that might seem textbook-y at first glance, but trust me, it can be a lifesaver when used in the right context—the Strategy Pattern. If you're someone who’s ever thrown a bunch of if-else conditions into your code just to switch between different behaviors... well, you’re going to like what’s coming.
Context
So what exactly are we solving here?
Imagine you’re writing a payment service. You start with support for credit cards. Life is good. Then comes PayPal, UPI, maybe a few crypto options because—why not. Before you know it, your once-clean processPayment() method is now a jungle of if, else if, and else.
You didn’t sign up for this mess, right?
That’s where the Strategy Pattern quietly walks in like that one teammate who just gets things done. Cleanly. Reliably.
What Is Strategy Pattern Anyway?
In simple terms, the Strategy Pattern is a way to define a family of algorithms (or behaviors), encapsulate them, and make them interchangeable. It helps you keep your code open for extension but closed for modification—that golden principle we all say we follow, but rarely actually do.
It basically says:
"You shouldn’t be doing switch-case or if-else hell when different logic is involved. Let the behavior be injected. Let it be swappable. Don’t hardcode it."
The Problem It Solves (For Real)
Let’s break it down into actual pains:
- ✅ Your method is ballooning in size because you’ve got different behavior branching based on conditions.
- ✅ You can’t unit test behaviors in isolation.
- ✅ Adding one more behavior feels like defusing a bomb.
- ✅ Team starts dreading this part of the codebase.
If this sounds familiar, then yes—you are probably ready for Strategy Pattern.
The Strategy Way (Let’s Pseudocode It)
interface PaymentStrategy {
processPayment(amount);
}
class CreditCardPayment implements PaymentStrategy {
processPayment(amount) {
// logic to process credit card payment
print("Processing credit card payment of $" + amount);
}
}
class UpiPayment implements PaymentStrategy {
processPayment(amount) {
// logic to process UPI payment
print("Processing UPI payment of $" + amount);
}
}
class NetBankingPayment implements PaymentStrategy {
processPayment(amount) {
// logic to process net banking payment
print("Processing net banking payment of $" + amount);
}
}
class PaymentContext {
strategy;
setPaymentStrategy(strategy) {
this.strategy = strategy;
}
pay(amount) {
strategy.processPayment(amount);
}
}
// Usage
context = new PaymentContext();
context.setPaymentStrategy(new UpiPayment());
context.pay(500); // prints: Processing UPI payment of $500
context.setPaymentStrategy(new CreditCardPayment());
context.pay(1000); // prints: Processing credit card payment of $1000
Use Cases That Make Total Sense
Here are some places I’ve seen this used well:
- Different file compression algorithms
- Payment methods (like the example earlier)
- Logging strategies (to file, to DB, to cloud)
- UI behavior switching based on user role
- Feature flags to switch the behavior
It shines when you want the behavior to vary but the usage to stay consistent.
Why You Should Care?
Because sooner or later, you’ll build something that grows beyond what you originally imagined. And when that happens, a pattern like Strategy will prevent your code from turning into an un-testable, unreadable soup.
It also gives you the flexibility to ship faster. Want to test out a new behavior in production with a feature flag? Just swap in a new strategy.
One Word of Caution
Don’t overuse it. Don’t try to build "strategies" just to be fancy. If your code is never going to have more than one behavior, don't bother abstracting it out. This is not an invitation to "design pattern everything."
TL;DR
- Strategy Pattern lets you define interchangeable behaviors (aka strategies).
- Helps keep your code clean, modular, testable, and less if-else heavy.
- It’s like hiring a dedicated class to take care of logic variations—just inject and go.
- Use it when behaviors change, not when you’re bored and looking for something to refactor.
You see what I did there? Just another useful concept made simple and practical—because that’s how we roll at The Dev Learnings. Let me know what design pattern or architectural decision you want me to unpack next.
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