I'm trying to understand dependency injections (DI), and once again I failed. It just seems silly. My code is never a mess; I hardly write virtual functions and interfaces (although I do once in a blue moon) and all my configuration is magically serialized into a class using json.net (sometimes using an XML serializer).
I don't quite understand what problem it solves. It looks like a way to say: "hi. When you run into this function, return an object that is of this type and uses these parameters/data."
But... why would I ever use that? Note I have never needed to use object as well, but I understand what that is for.
What are some real situations in either building a website or desktop application where one would use DI? I can come up with cases easily for why someone may want to use interfaces/virtual functions in a game, but it's extremely rare (rare enough that I can't remember a single instance) to use that in non-game code.
First, I want to explain an assumption that I make for this answer. It is not always true, but quite often:
Interfaces are adjectives; classes are nouns.
(Actually, there are interfaces that are nouns as well, but I want to generalize here.)
So, e.g. an interface may be something such as IDisposable, IEnumerable or IPrintable. A class is an actual implementation of one or more of these interfaces: List or Map may both be implementations of IEnumerable.
To get the point: Often your classes depend on each other. E.g. you could have a Database class which accesses your database (hah, surprise! ;-)), but you also want this class to do logging about accessing the database. Suppose you have another class Logger, then Database has a dependency to Logger.
So far, so good.
You can model this dependency inside your Database class with the following line:
var logger = new Logger();
and everything is fine. It is fine up to the day when you realize that you need a bunch of loggers: Sometimes you want to log to the console, sometimes to the file system, sometimes using TCP/IP and a remote logging server, and so on ...
And of course you do NOT want to change all your code (meanwhile you have gazillions of it) and replace all lines
var logger = new Logger();
by:
var logger = new TcpLogger();
First, this is no fun. Second, this is error-prone. Third, this is stupid, repetitive work for a trained monkey. So what do you do?
Obviously it's a quite good idea to introduce an interface ICanLog (or similar) that is implemented by all the various loggers. So step 1 in your code is that you do:
ICanLog logger = new Logger();
Now the type inference doesn't change type any more, you always have one single interface to develop against. The next step is that you do not want to have new Logger() over and over again. So you put the reliability to create new instances to a single, central factory class, and you get code such as:
ICanLog logger = LoggerFactory.Create();
The factory itself decides what kind of logger to create. Your code doesn't care any longer, and if you want to change the type of logger being used, you change it once: Inside the factory.
Now, of course, you can generalize this factory, and make it work for any type:
ICanLog logger = TypeFactory.Create<ICanLog>();
Somewhere this TypeFactory needs configuration data which actual class to instantiate when a specific interface type is requested, so you need a mapping. Of course you can do this mapping inside your code, but then a type change means recompiling. But you could also put this mapping inside an XML file, e.g.. This allows you to change the actually used class even after compile time (!), that means dynamically, without recompiling!
To give you a useful example for this: Think of a software that does not log normally, but when your customer calls and asks for help because he has a problem, all you send to him is an updated XML config file, and now he has logging enabled, and your support can use the log files to help your customer.
And now, when you replace names a little bit, you end up with a simple implementation of a Service Locator, which is one of two patterns for Inversion of Control (since you invert control over who decides what exact class to instantiate).
All in all this reduces dependencies in your code, but now all your code has a dependency to the central, single service locator.
Dependency injection is now the next step in this line: Just get rid of this single dependency to the service locator: Instead of various classes asking the service locator for an implementation for a specific interface, you - once again - revert control over who instantiates what.
With dependency injection, your Database class now has a constructor that requires a parameter of type ICanLog:
public Database(ICanLog logger) { ... }
Now your database always has a logger to use, but it does not know any more where this logger comes from.
And this is where a DI framework comes into play: You configure your mappings once again, and then ask your DI framework to instantiate your application for you. As the Application class requires an ICanPersistData implementation, an instance of Database is injected - but for that it must first create an instance of the kind of logger which is configured for ICanLog. And so on ...
So, to cut a long story short: Dependency injection is one of two ways of how to remove dependencies in your code. It is very useful for configuration changes after compile-time, and it is a great thing for unit testing (as it makes it very easy to inject stubs and / or mocks).
In practice, there are things you can not do without a service locator (e.g., if you do not know in advance how many instances you do need of a specific interface: A DI framework always injects only one instance per parameter, but you can call a service locator inside a loop, of course), hence most often each DI framework also provides a service locator.
But basically, that's it.
P.S.: What I described here is a technique called constructor injection, there is also property injection where not constructor parameters, but properties are being used for defining and resolving dependencies. Think of property injection as an optional dependency, and of constructor injection as mandatory dependencies. But discussion on this is beyond the scope of this question.
I think a lot of times people get confused about the difference between dependency injection and a dependency injection framework (or a container as it is often called).
Dependency injection is a very simple concept. Instead of this code:
public class A {
private B b;
public A() {
this.b = new B(); // A *depends on* B
}
public void DoSomeStuff() {
// Do something with B here
}
}
public static void Main(string[] args) {
A a = new A();
a.DoSomeStuff();
}
you write code like this:
public class A {
private B b;
public A(B b) { // A now takes its dependencies as arguments
this.b = b; // look ma, no "new"!
}
public void DoSomeStuff() {
// Do something with B here
}
}
public static void Main(string[] args) {
B b = new B(); // B is constructed here instead
A a = new A(b);
a.DoSomeStuff();
}
And that's it. Seriously. This gives you a ton of advantages. Two important ones are the ability to control functionality from a central place (the Main() function) instead of spreading it throughout your program, and the ability to more easily test each class in isolation (because you can pass mocks or other faked objects into its constructor instead of a real value).
The drawback, of course, is that you now have one mega-function that knows about all the classes used by your program. That's what DI frameworks can help with. But if you're having trouble understanding why this approach is valuable, I'd recommend starting with manual dependency injection first, so you can better appreciate what the various frameworks out there can do for you.
As the other answers stated, dependency injection is a way to create your dependencies outside of the class that uses it. You inject them from the outside, and take control about their creation away from the inside of your class. This is also why dependency injection is a realization of the Inversion of control (IoC) principle.
IoC is the principle, where DI is the pattern. The reason that you might "need more than one logger" is never actually met, as far as my experience goes, but the actually reason is, that you really need it, whenever you test something. An example:
My Feature:
When I look at an offer, I want to mark that I looked at it automatically, so that I don't forget to do so.
You might test this like this:
[Test]
public void ShouldUpdateTimeStamp
{
// Arrange
var formdata = { . . . }
// System under Test
var weasel = new OfferWeasel();
// Act
var offer = weasel.Create(formdata)
// Assert
offer.LastUpdated.Should().Be(new DateTime(2013,01,13,13,01,0,0));
}
So somewhere in the OfferWeasel, it builds you an offer Object like this:
public class OfferWeasel
{
public Offer Create(Formdata formdata)
{
var offer = new Offer();
offer.LastUpdated = DateTime.Now;
return offer;
}
}
The problem here is, that this test will most likely always fail, since the date that is being set will differ from the date being asserted, even if you just put DateTime.Now in the test code it might be off by a couple of milliseconds and will therefore always fail. A better solution now would be to create an interface for this, that allows you to control what time will be set:
public interface IGotTheTime
{
DateTime Now {get;}
}
public class CannedTime : IGotTheTime
{
public DateTime Now {get; set;}
}
public class ActualTime : IGotTheTime
{
public DateTime Now {get { return DateTime.Now; }}
}
public class OfferWeasel
{
private readonly IGotTheTime _time;
public OfferWeasel(IGotTheTime time)
{
_time = time;
}
public Offer Create(Formdata formdata)
{
var offer = new Offer();
offer.LastUpdated = _time.Now;
return offer;
}
}
The Interface is the abstraction. One is the REAL thing, and the other one allows you to fake some time where it is needed. The test can then be changed like this:
[Test]
public void ShouldUpdateTimeStamp
{
// Arrange
var date = new DateTime(2013, 01, 13, 13, 01, 0, 0);
var formdata = { . . . }
var time = new CannedTime { Now = date };
// System under test
var weasel= new OfferWeasel(time);
// Act
var offer = weasel.Create(formdata)
// Assert
offer.LastUpdated.Should().Be(date);
}
Like this, you applied the "inversion of control" principle, by injecting a dependency (getting the current time). The main reason to do this is for easier isolated unit testing, there are other ways of doing it. For example, an interface and a class here is unnecessary since in C# functions can be passed around as variables, so instead of an interface you could use a Func<DateTime> to achieve the same. Or, if you take a dynamic approach, you just pass any object that has the equivalent method (duck typing), and you don't need an interface at all.
You will hardly ever need more than one logger. Nonetheless, dependency injection is essential for statically typed code such as Java or C#.
And...
It should also be noted that an object can only properly fulfill its purpose at runtime, if all its dependencies are available, so there is not much use in setting up property injection. In my opinion, all dependencies should be satisfied when the constructor is being called, so constructor-injection is the thing to go with.
I think the classic answer is to create a more decoupled application, which has no knowledge of which implementation will be used during runtime.
For example, we're a central payment provider, working with many payment providers around the world. However, when a request is made, I have no idea which payment processor I'm going to call. I could program one class with a ton of switch cases, such as:
class PaymentProcessor{
private String type;
public PaymentProcessor(String type){
this.type = type;
}
public void authorize(){
if (type.equals(Consts.PAYPAL)){
// Do this;
}
else if(type.equals(Consts.OTHER_PROCESSOR)){
// Do that;
}
}
}
Now imagine that now you'll need to maintain all this code in a single class because it's not decoupled properly, you can imagine that for every new processor you'll support, you'll need to create a new if // switch case for every method, this only gets more complicated, however, by using Dependency Injection (or Inversion of Control - as it's sometimes called, meaning that whoever controls the running of the program is known only at runtime, and not complication), you could achieve something very neat and maintainable.
class PaypalProcessor implements PaymentProcessor{
public void authorize(){
// Do PayPal authorization
}
}
class OtherProcessor implements PaymentProcessor{
public void authorize(){
// Do other processor authorization
}
}
class PaymentFactory{
public static PaymentProcessor create(String type){
switch(type){
case Consts.PAYPAL;
return new PaypalProcessor();
case Consts.OTHER_PROCESSOR;
return new OtherProcessor();
}
}
}
interface PaymentProcessor{
void authorize();
}
** The code won't compile, I know :)
The main reason to use DI is that you want to put the responsibility of the knowledge of the implementation where the knowledge is there. The idea of DI is very much inline with encapsulation and design by interface.
If the front end asks from the back end for some data, then is it unimportant for the front end how the back end resolves that question. That is up to the requesthandler.
That is already common in OOP for a long time. Many times creating code pieces like:
I_Dosomething x = new Impl_Dosomething();
The drawback is that the implementation class is still hardcoded, hence has the front end the knowledge which implementation is used. DI takes the design by interface one step further, that the only thing the front end needs to know is the knowledge of the interface.
In between the DYI and DI is the pattern of a service locator, because the front end has to provide a key (present in the registry of the service locator) to lets its request become resolved.
Service locator example:
I_Dosomething x = ServiceLocator.returnDoing(String pKey);
DI example:
I_Dosomething x = DIContainer.returnThat();
One of the requirements of DI is that the container must be able to find out which class is the implementation of which interface. Hence does a DI container require strongly typed design and only one implementation for each interface at the same time. If you need more implementations of an interface at the same time (like a calculator), you need the service locator or factory design pattern.
D(b)I: Dependency Injection and Design by Interface.
This restriction is not a very big practical problem though. The benefit of using D(b)I is that it serves communication between the client and the provider. An interface is a perspective on an object or a set of behaviours. The latter is crucial here.
I prefer the administration of service contracts together with D(b)I in coding. They should go together. The use of D(b)I as a technical solution without organizational administration of service contracts is not very beneficial in my point of view, because DI is then just an extra layer of encapsulation. But when you can use it together with organizational administration you can really make use of the organizing principle D(b)I offers.
It can help you in the long run to structure communication with the client and other technical departments in topics as testing, versioning and the development of alternatives. When you have an implicit interface as in a hardcoded class, then is it much less communicable over time then when you make it explicit using D(b)I. It all boils down to maintenance, which is over time and not at a time. :-)
Quite frankly, I believe people use these Dependency Injection libraries/frameworks because they just know how to do things in runtime, as opposed to load time. All this crazy machinery can be substituted by setting your CLASSPATH environment variable (or other language equivalent, like PYTHONPATH, LD_LIBRARY_PATH) to point to your alternative implementations (all with the same name) of a particular class. So in the accepted answer you'd just leave your code like
var logger = new Logger() //sane, simple code
And the appropriate logger will be instantiated because the JVM (or whatever other runtime or .so loader you have) would fetch it from the class configured via the environment variable mentioned above.
No need to make everything an interface, no need to have the insanity of spawning broken objects to have stuff injected into them, no need to have insane constructors with every piece of internal machinery exposed to the world. Just use the native functionality of whatever language you're using instead of coming up with dialects that won't work in any other project.
P.S.: This is also true for testing/mocking. You can very well just set your environment to load the appropriate mock class, in load time, and skip the mocking framework madness.
According to the paper written by Martin Fowler, inversion of control is the principle where the control flow of a program is inverted: instead of the programmer controlling the flow of a program, the external sources (framework, services, other components) take control of it. It's like we plug something into something else. He mentioned an example about EJB 2.0:
For example the Session Bean interface
defines ejbRemove, ejbPassivate
(stored to secondary storage), and
ejbActivate (restored from passive
state). You don't get to control when
these methods are called, just what
they do. The container calls us, we
don't call it.
This leads to the difference between framework and library:
Inversion of Control is a key part of
what makes a framework different to a
library. A library is essentially a
set of functions that you can call,
these days usually organized into
classes. Each call does some work and
returns control to the client.
I think, the point of view that DI is IOC, means the dependency of an object is inverted: instead of it controlling its own dependencies, life cycle... something else does it for you. But, as you told me about DI by hands, DI is not necessarily IOC. We can still have DI and no IOC.
However, in this paper (from the pococapsule, another IOC Framework for C/C++), it suggests that because of IOC and DI, the IOC containers and DI frameworks are far more superior to J2EE, since J2EE mixes the framework code into the components, thus not making it Plain Old Java/C++ Object (POJO/POCO).
Inversion of Control Containers other than the Dependency Injection pattern (Archive link)
Additional reading to understand what's the problem with old Component-Based Development Framework, which leads to the second paper above: Why and what of Inversion of Control (Archive link)
My Question: What exactly is IOC and DI? I am confused. Based on pococapsule, IOC is something more significant than just inversion of the control between objects or programmers and frameworks.
The Inversion-of-Control (IoC) pattern, is about providing any kind of callback, which "implements" and/or controls reaction, instead of acting ourselves directly (in other words, inversion and/or redirecting control to the external handler/controller).
For example, rather than having the application call the implementations provided by a library (also known as toolkit), the library and/or framework calls the implementations provided by the application.
The Dependency-Injection (DI) pattern is a more specific version of IoC pattern, where implementations are passed into an object through constructors/setters/service lookups, which the object will "depend" on in order to behave correctly.
Every DI implementation can be considered IoC, but one should not call it IoC, because implementing Dependency-Injection is harder than callback (Don't lower your product's worth by using the general term "IoC" instead).
IoC without using DI, for example, would be the Template pattern because the implementation can only be changed through sub-classing.
DI frameworks are designed to make use of DI, and can define interfaces (or Annotations in Java) to make it easy to pass in the implementations.
IoC containers are DI frameworks that can work outside of the programming language. In some you can configure in metadata files (e.g. XML), the implementations to be used, which are less invasive. With some you can do IoC that would normally be impossible, like injecting an implementation at pointcuts.
See also this Martin Fowler's article.
In short, IoC is a much broader term that includes, but is not limited to, DI
The term Inversion of Control (IoC) originally meant any sort of programming style where an overall
framework or run-time controlled the program flow
Before DI had a name, people started to refer to frameworks that manage Dependencies as Inversion
of Control Containers, and soon, the meaning of IoC gradually drifted towards that particular meaning: Inversion of Control over Dependencies.
Inversion of Control (IoC) means that objects do not create other objects on which they rely to do their work. Instead, they get the objects that they need from an outside source (for example, an xml configuration file).
Dependency Injection (DI) means that this is done without the object intervention, usually by a framework component that passes constructor parameters and set properties.
source
IoC (Inversion of Control) :- It’s a generic term and implemented in several ways (events, delegates etc).
DI (Dependency Injection) :- DI is a sub-type of IoC and is implemented by constructor injection, setter injection or Interface injection.
But, Spring supports only the following two types :
Setter Injection
Setter-based DI is realized by calling setter methods on the user’s beans after invoking a no-argument constructor or no-argument static factory method to instantiate their bean.
Constructor Injection
Constructor-based DI is realized by invoking a constructor with a number of arguments, each representing a collaborator.Using this we can validate that the injected beans are not null and fail fast(fail on compile time and not on run-time), so while starting application itself we get NullPointerException: bean does not exist. Constructor injection is Best practice to inject dependencies.
DI is a subset of IoC
IoC means that objects do not create other objects on which they rely to do their work. Instead, they get the objects that they need from an outside service (for example, xml file or single app service). 2 implementations of IoC, I use, are DI and ServiceLocator.
DI means the IoC principle of getting dependent object is done without using concrete objects but abstractions (interfaces). This makes all components chain testable, cause higher level component doesn't depend on lower level component, only from the interface. Mocks implement these interfaces.
Here are some other techniques to achieve IoC.
IOC (Inversion Of Control): Giving control to the container to get an instance of the object is called Inversion of Control, means instead of you are creating an object using the new operator, let the container do that for you.
DI (Dependency Injection): Way of injecting properties to an object is called Dependency Injection.
We have three types of Dependency Injection:
Constructor Injection
Setter/Getter Injection
Interface Injection
Spring supports only Constructor Injection and Setter/Getter Injection.
Since all the answers emphasize on theory I would like to demonstrate with an example first approach:
Suppose we are building an application which contains a feature to send SMS confirmation messages once the order has been shipped.
We will have two classes, one is responsible for sending the SMS (SMSService), and another responsible for capturing user inputs (UIHandler), our code will look as below:
public class SMSService
{
public void SendSMS(string mobileNumber, string body)
{
SendSMSUsingGateway(mobileNumber, body);
}
private void SendSMSUsingGateway(string mobileNumber, string body)
{
/*implementation for sending SMS using gateway*/
}
}
public class UIHandler
{
public void SendConfirmationMsg(string mobileNumber)
{
SMSService _SMSService = new SMSService();
_SMSService.SendSMS(mobileNumber, "Your order has been shipped successfully!");
}
}
Above implementation is not wrong but there are few issues:
-) Suppose On development environment, you want to save SMSs sent to a text file instead of using SMS gateway, to achieve this; we will end up changing the concrete implementation of (SMSService) with another implementation, we are losing flexibility and forced to rewrite the code in this case.
-) We’ll end up mixing responsibilities of classes, our (UIHandler) should never know about the concrete implementation of (SMSService), this should be done outside the classes using “Interfaces”. When this is implemented, it will give us the ability to change the behavior of the system by swapping the (SMSService) used with another mock service which implements the same interface, this service will save SMSs to a text file instead of sending to mobileNumber.
To fix the above issues we use Interfaces which will be implemented by our (SMSService) and the new (MockSMSService), basically the new Interface (ISMSService) will expose the same behaviors of both services as the code below:
public interface ISMSService
{
void SendSMS(string phoneNumber, string body);
}
Then we will change our (SMSService) implementation to implement the (ISMSService) interface:
public class SMSService : ISMSService
{
public void SendSMS(string mobileNumber, string body)
{
SendSMSUsingGateway(mobileNumber, body);
}
private void SendSMSUsingGateway(string mobileNumber, string body)
{
/*implementation for sending SMS using gateway*/
Console.WriteLine("Sending SMS using gateway to mobile:
{0}. SMS body: {1}", mobileNumber, body);
}
}
Now we will be able to create new mock up service (MockSMSService) with totally different implementation using the same interface:
public class MockSMSService :ISMSService
{
public void SendSMS(string phoneNumber, string body)
{
SaveSMSToFile(phoneNumber,body);
}
private void SaveSMSToFile(string mobileNumber, string body)
{
/*implementation for saving SMS to a file*/
Console.WriteLine("Mocking SMS using file to mobile:
{0}. SMS body: {1}", mobileNumber, body);
}
}
At this point, we can change the code in (UIHandler) to use the concrete implementation of the service (MockSMSService) easily as below:
public class UIHandler
{
public void SendConfirmationMsg(string mobileNumber)
{
ISMSService _SMSService = new MockSMSService();
_SMSService.SendSMS(mobileNumber, "Your order has been shipped successfully!");
}
}
We have achieved a lot of flexibility and implemented separation of concerns in our code, but still we need to do a change on the code base to switch between the two SMS Services. So we need to implement Dependency Injection.
To achieve this, we need to implement a change to our (UIHandler) class constructor to pass the dependency through it, by doing this, the code which uses the (UIHandler) can determine which concrete implementation of (ISMSService) to use:
public class UIHandler
{
private readonly ISMSService _SMSService;
public UIHandler(ISMSService SMSService)
{
_SMSService = SMSService;
}
public void SendConfirmationMsg(string mobileNumber)
{
_SMSService.SendSMS(mobileNumber, "Your order has been shipped successfully!");
}
}
Now the UI form which will talk with class (UIHandler) is responsible to pass which implementation of interface (ISMSService) to consume. This means we have inverted the control, the (UIHandler) is no longer responsible to decide which implementation to use, the calling code does. We have implemented the Inversion of Control principle which DI is one type of it.
The UI form code will be as below:
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
ISMSService _SMSService = new MockSMSService(); // dependency
UIHandler _UIHandler = new UIHandler(_SMSService);
_UIHandler.SendConfirmationMsg("96279544480");
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
Rather than contrast DI and IoC directly, it may be helpful to start from the beginning: every non-trivial application depends on other pieces of code.
So I am writing a class, MyClass, and I need to call a method of YourService... somehow I need to acquire an instance of YourService. The simplest, most straightforward way is to instantiate it myself.
YourService service = new YourServiceImpl();
Direct instantiation is the traditional (procedural) way to acquire a dependency. But it has a number of drawbacks, including tight coupling of MyClass to YourServiceImpl, making my code difficult to change and difficult to test. MyClass doesn't care what the implementation of YourService looks like, so MyClass doesn't want to be responsible for instantiating it.
I'd prefer to invert that responsibility from MyClass to something outside MyClass. The simplest way to do that is just to move the instantiation call (new YourServiceImpl();) into some other class. I might name this other class a Locator, or a Factory, or any other name; but the point is that MyClass is no longer responsible for YourServiceImpl. I've inverted that dependency. Great.
Problem is, MyClass is still responsible for making the call to the Locator/Factory/Whatever. Since all I've done to invert the dependency is insert a middleman, now I'm coupled to the middleman (even if I'm not coupled to the concrete objects the middleman gives me).
I don't really care where my dependencies come from, so I'd prefer not to be responsible for making the call(s) to retrieve them. Inverting the dependency itself wasn't quite enough. I want to invert control of the whole process.
What I need is a totally separate piece of code that MyClass plugs into (call it a framework). Then the only responsibility I'm left with is to declare my dependency on YourService. The framework can take care of figuring out where and when and how to get an instance, and just give MyClass what it needs. And the best part is that MyClass doesn't need to know about the framework. The framework can be in control of this dependency wiring process. Now I've inverted control (on top of inverting dependencies).
There are different ways of connecting MyClass into a framework. Injection is one such mechanism whereby I simply declare a field or parameter that I expect a framework to provide, typically when it instantiates MyClass.
I think the hierarchy of relationships among all these concepts is slightly more complex than what other diagrams in this thread are showing; but the basic idea is that it is a hierarchical relationship. I think this syncs up with DIP in the wild.
But the spring documentation says they are same.
http://docs.spring.io/spring/docs/current/spring-framework-reference/htmlsingle/#beans-introduction
In the first line "IoC is also known as dependency injection (DI)".
IoC - Inversion of control is generic term, independent of language, it is actually not create the objects but describe in which fashion object is being created.
DI - Dependency Injection is concrete term, in which we provide dependencies of the object at run time by using different injection techniques viz. Setter Injection, Constructor Injection or by Interface Injection.
Inversion of control is a design paradigm with the goal of giving more control to the targeted components of your application, the ones getting the work done.
Dependency injection is a pattern used to create instances of objects that other objects rely on without knowing at compile time which class will be used to provide that functionality.
There are several basic techniques to implement inversion of control. These are:
Using a factory pattern
Using a service locator pattern
Using a dependency injection of any given below type:
1). A constructor injection
2). A setter injection
3). An interface injection
Inversion of Control is a generic design principle of software architecture that assists in creating reusable, modular software frameworks that are easy to maintain.
It is a design principle in which the Flow of Control is "received" from the generic-written library or reusable code.
To understand it better, lets see how we used to code in our earlier days of coding. In procedural/traditional languages, the business logic generally controls the flow of the application and "Calls" the generic or reusable code/functions. For example, in a simple Console application, my flow of control is controlled by my program's instructions, that may include the calls to some general reusable functions.
print ("Please enter your name:");
scan (&name);
print ("Please enter your DOB:");
scan (&dob);
//More print and scan statements
<Do Something Interesting>
//Call a Library function to find the age (common code)
print Age
In Contrast, with IoC, the Frameworks are the reusable code that "Calls" the business logic.
For example, in a windows based system, a framework will already be available to create UI elements like buttons, menus, windows and dialog boxes. When I write the business logic of my application, it would be framework's events that will call my business logic code (when an event is fired) and NOT the opposite.
Although, the framework's code is not aware of my business logic, it will still know how to call my code. This is achieved using events/delegates, callbacks etc. Here the Control of flow is "Inverted".
So, instead of depending the flow of control on statically bound objects, the flow depends upon the overall object graph and the relations between different objects.
Dependency Injection is a design pattern that implements IoC principle for resolving dependencies of objects.
In simpler words, when you are trying to write code, you will be creating and using different classes. One class (Class A) may use other classes (Class B and/or D). So, Class B and D are dependencies of class A.
A simple analogy will be a class Car. A car might depend on other classes like Engine, Tyres and more.
Dependency Injection suggests that instead of the Dependent classes (Class Car here) creating its dependencies (Class Engine and class Tyre), class should be injected with the concrete instance of the dependency.
Lets understand with a more practical example. Consider that you are writing your own TextEditor. Among other things, you can have a spellchecker that provides the user with a facility to check the typos in his text. A simple implementation of such a code can be:
Class TextEditor
{
//Lot of rocket science to create the Editor goes here
EnglishSpellChecker objSpellCheck;
String text;
public void TextEditor()
{
objSpellCheck = new EnglishSpellChecker();
}
public ArrayList <typos> CheckSpellings()
{
//return Typos;
}
}
At first sight, all looks rosy. The user will write some text. The developer will capture the text and call the CheckSpellings function and will find a list of Typos that he will show to the User.
Everything seems to work great until one fine day when one user starts writing French in the Editor.
To provide the support for more languages, we need to have more SpellCheckers. Probably French, German, Spanish etc.
Here, we have created a tightly-coupled code with "English"SpellChecker being tightly coupled with our TextEditor class, which means our TextEditor class is dependent on the EnglishSpellChecker or in other words EnglishSpellCheker is the dependency for TextEditor. We need to remove this dependency. Further, Our Text Editor needs a way to hold the concrete reference of any Spell Checker based on developer's discretion at run time.
So, as we saw in the introduction of DI, it suggests that the class should be injected with its dependencies. So, it should be the calling code's responsibility to inject all the dependencies to the called class/code. So we can restructure our code as
interface ISpellChecker
{
Arraylist<typos> CheckSpelling(string Text);
}
Class EnglishSpellChecker : ISpellChecker
{
public override Arraylist<typos> CheckSpelling(string Text)
{
//All Magic goes here.
}
}
Class FrenchSpellChecker : ISpellChecker
{
public override Arraylist<typos> CheckSpelling(string Text)
{
//All Magic goes here.
}
}
In our example, the TextEditor class should receive the concrete instance of ISpellChecker type.
Now, the dependency can be injected in Constructor, a Public Property or a method.
Lets try to change our class using Constructor DI. The changed TextEditor class will look something like:
Class TextEditor
{
ISpellChecker objSpellChecker;
string Text;
public void TextEditor(ISpellChecker objSC)
{
objSpellChecker = objSC;
}
public ArrayList <typos> CheckSpellings()
{
return objSpellChecker.CheckSpelling();
}
}
So that the calling code, while creating the text editor can inject the appropriate SpellChecker Type to the instance of the TextEditor.
You can read the complete article here
DI and IOC are two design pattern that mainly focusing on providing loose coupling between components, or simply a way in which we decouple the conventional dependency relationships between object so that the objects are not tight to each other.
With following examples, I am trying to explain both these concepts.
Previously we are writing code like this
Public MyClass{
DependentClass dependentObject
/*
At somewhere in our code we need to instantiate
the object with new operator inorder to use it or perform some method.
*/
dependentObject= new DependentClass();
dependentObject.someMethod();
}
With Dependency injection, the dependency injector will take care of the instantiation of objects
Public MyClass{
/* Dependency injector will instantiate object*/
DependentClass dependentObject
/*
At somewhere in our code we perform some method.
The process of instantiation will be handled by the dependency injector
*/
dependentObject.someMethod();
}
The above process of giving the control to some other (for example the container) for the instantiation and injection can be termed as Inversion of Control and the process in which the IOC container inject the dependency for us can be termed as dependency injection.
IOC is the principle where the control flow of a program is inverted: instead of the programmer controlling the flow of a program, program controls the flow by reducing the overhead to the programmer.and the process used by the program to inject dependency is termed as DI
The two concepts work together providing us with a way to write much more flexible, reusable, and encapsulated code, which make them as important concepts in designing object-oriented solutions.
Also Recommend to read.
What is dependency injection?
You can also check one of my similar answer here
Difference between Inversion of Control & Dependency Injection
IOC(Inversion Of Control): Giving control to the container to get instance of object is called Inversion of Control. It means instead of you are creating object using new operator, let the container do that for you.
DI(Dependency Injection): Passing the required parameters(properties) from XML to an object(in POJO CLASS) is called Dependency injection.
IOC indicates that an external classes managing the classes of an application,and external classes means a container manages the dependency between class of application.
basic concept of IOC is that programmer don't need to create your objects but describe how they should be created.
The main tasks performed by IoC container are:
to instantiate the application class. to configure the object. to assemble the dependencies between the objects.
DI is the process of providing the dependencies of an object at run time by using setter injection or constructor injection.
IOC - DIP - DI
Inversion of Control (IOC)
Dependency Inversion Principle (DIP)
Dependency Injection (DI)
1- IOC: abstract principle describing an aspect of some software architecture designs in which the flow of control of a system is inverted in comparison to procedural programming.
2-DIP: is Object Oriented Programming(OOP) principle(D of SOLID).
3-DI: is a software design pattern that implements inversion of control and allows a program design to follow the dependency inversion principle.
IOC & DIP are two disjoint sets and DIP is the super set of DI, service locator and some other patterns
IOC (Inversion of Control) is basically design pattern concept of removing dependencies and decoupling them to making the flow non-linear , and let the container / or another entity manage the provisioning of dependencies. It actually follow Hollywood principal “Don’t call us we will call you”.
So summarizing the differences.
Inversion of control :- It’s a generic term to decouple the dependencies and delegate their provisioning , and this can be implemented in several ways (events, delegates etc).
Dependency injection :- DI is a subtype of IOC and is implemented by constructor injection, setter injection or method injection.
The following article describe this very neatly.
https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/592372/Dependency-Injection-DI-vs-Inversion-of-Control-IO
I think the idea can be demonstrated clearly without getting into Object Oriented weeds, which seem to muddle the idea.
// dependency injection
function doSomething(dependency) {
// do something with your dependency
}
// in contrast to creating your dependencies yourself
function doSomething() {
dependency = getDependencySomehow()
}
// inversion of control
application = makeApp(authenticate, handleRequest, sendResponse)
application.run(getRequest())
// in contrast to direct control or a "library" style
application = makeApp()
request = application.getRequest()
if (application.authenticate(request.creds)) {
response = application.handleRequest(request)
application.sendResponse(response)
}
If you tilt your head and squint your eyes, you'll see that DI is a particular implementation of IoC with specific concerns. Instead of injecting models and behaviors into an application framework or higher-order operation, you are injecting variables into a function or object.
Let's begin with D of SOLID and look at DI and IoC from Scott Millett's book "Professional ASP.NET Design Patterns":
Dependency Inversion Principle (DIP)
The DIP is all about isolating your classes from concrete
implementations and having them depend on abstract classes or
interfaces. It promotes the mantra of coding to an interface rather
than an implementation, which increases flexibility within a system by
ensuring you are not tightly coupled to one implementation.
Dependency Injection (DI) and Inversion of Control (IoC)
Closely linked to the DIP are the DI principle and the IoC principle. DI is the act of supplying a low level or dependent class via a
constructor, method, or property. Used in conjunction with DI, these
dependent classes can be inverted to interfaces or abstract classes
that will lead to loosely coupled systems that are highly testable and
easy to change.
In IoC, a system’s flow of control is inverted
compared to procedural programming. An example of this is an IoC
container, whose purpose is to inject services into client code
without having the client code specifying the concrete implementation.
The control in this instance that is being inverted is the act of the
client obtaining the service.
Millett,C (2010). Professional ASP.NET Design Patterns. Wiley Publishing. 7-8.
DIP vs DI vs IoC
[Dependency Inversion Principle(DIP)] is a part of SOLID[About] which ask you to use abstraction instead of realizations
Dependency Injection(DI) - use Aggregation instead of Composition[About] In this case external object is responsible for logic inside. Which allows you to have more dynamic and testable approach
class A {
B b
//injecting B via constructor
init(b: B) {
self.b = b
}
}
Inversion of Control(IoC) very high level definition which is more about control flow. The best example is Inversion of Control(IoC) Container or Framework[About]. For example GUI which is Framework where you don't have a control, everything which you can do is just implement Framework's interface which will be called when some action is happend in the Framework. So control is shifted from your application into the Framework being used
DIP + DI
class A {
IB ib
init(ib: IB) {
self.ib = ib
}
}
Also you can achieve it using:
[Factory Method]
[Service Locator]
[IoC-container(framework)]
More complex example
Dependency rule in multi layer/module structure
Pseudocode:
interface InterfaceInputPort {
func input()
}
interface InterfaceOutputPort {
func output()
}
class A: InterfaceOutputPort {
let inputPort = B(outputPort: self)
func output() {
print("output")
}
}
class B: InterfaceInputPort {
let outputPort: InterfaceOutputPort
init(outputPort: InterfaceOutputPort) {
self.outputPort = outputPort
}
func input() {
print("input")
}
}
//ICO , DI ,10 years back , this was they way:
public class AuditDAOImpl implements Audit{
//dependency
AuditDAO auditDAO = null;
//Control of the AuditDAO is with AuditDAOImpl because its creating the object
public AuditDAOImpl () {
this.auditDAO = new AuditDAO ();
}
}
Now with Spring 3,4 or latest its like below
public class AuditDAOImpl implements Audit{
//dependency
//Now control is shifted to Spring. Container find the object and provide it.
#Autowired
AuditDAO auditDAO = null;
}
Overall the control is inverted from old concept of coupled code to the frameworks like Spring which makes the object available. So that's IOC as far as I know and Dependency injection as you know when we inject the dependent object into another object using Constructor or setters . Inject basically means passing it as an argument. In spring we have XML & annotation based configuration where we define bean object and pass the dependent object with Constructor or setter injection style.
I found best example on Dzone.com which is really helpfull to understand the real different between IOC and DI
“IoC is when you have someone else create objects for you.” So instead of writing "new " keyword (For example, MyCode c=new MyCode())in your code, the object is created by someone else. This ‘someone else’ is normally referred to as an IoC container. It means we handover the rrsponsibility (control )to the container to get instance of object is called Inversion of Control.,
means instead of you are creating object using new operator, let the container do that for you.
DI(Dependency Injection): Way of injecting properties to an object is
called
Dependency injection.
We have three types of Dependency injection
1) Constructor Injection
2) Setter/Getter Injection
3) Interface Injection
Spring will support only Constructor Injection and Setter/Getter Injection.
Read full article IOC and Read Full article DI
1) DI is Child->obj depends on parent-obj. The verb depends is important.
2) IOC is Child->obj perform under a platform. where platform could be school, college, dance class. Here perform is an activity with different implication under any platform provider.
practical example:
`
//DI
child.getSchool();
//IOC
child.perform()// is a stub implemented by dance-school
child.flourish()// is a stub implemented by dance-school/school/
`
-AB
As for this question, I'd say the wiki has already provided detailed and easy-understanding explanations. I will just quote the most significant here.
Implementation of IoC
In object-oriented programming, there are several basic techniques to
implement inversion of control. These are:
Using a service locator pattern Using dependency injection, for
example Constructor injection Parameter injection Setter injection
Interface injection;
Using a contextualized lookup;
Using template method design pattern;
Using strategy design pattern
As for Dependency Injection
dependency injection is a technique whereby one object (or static
method) supplies the dependencies of another object. A dependency is
an object that can be used (a service). An injection is the passing of
a dependency to a dependent object (a client) that would use it.
IoC concept was initially heard during the procedural programming era. Therefore from a historical context IoC talked about inversion of the ownership of control-flow i.e. who owns the responsibility to invoke the functions in the desired order - whether it's the functions themselves or should you invert it to some external entity.
However once the OOP emerged, people began to talk about IoC in OOP context where applications are concerned with object creation and their relationships as well, apart from the control-flow. Such applications wanted to invert the ownership of object-creation (rather than control-flow) and required a container which is responsible for object creation, object life-cycle & injecting dependencies of the application objects thereby eliminating application objects from creating other concrete object.
In that sense DI is not the same as IoC, since it's not about control-flow, however it's a kind of Io*, i.e. Inversion of ownership of object-creation.
What is wrong in my way of explainning DI and IoC?