The Singleton pattern is a frequently used pattern in object-oriented programming languages. It is one of the most frequently used programming patterns.

In this post I will show you when the Singleton Pattern is useful for you and how you can integrate it into your Flutter project.

The purpose

The Singleton pattern makes it in object-oriented programming languages possible to use an object of a class in different contexts, without passing it on with function calls constantly. Inversely said it prevents the creation of several objects of a class.
The Singleton Pattern is used to control the object creation and usage of a class dynamically at runtime. It is mostly used when tasks are used frequently and in different parts of an application.

The implementation

Following the Singleton pattern, a class 'MySingletonClass' should manage an object '_instance' and return this object instance when it is created. This is implemented as follows:

class MySingletonClass {

  static final MySingletonClass _instance = 
    MySingletonClass ._internal();

  // passes the instantiation to the _instance object
  factory MySingletonClass() => _instance;

}

The _internal method can be used to initialize variables:

class MySingletonClass {

  [...]

  //initialize variables in here
  MySingletonClass._internal() {
    //_myVariable has to be defined before
    _myVariable = 0;
  }
}

The singleton-class is now finished and can be implemented. To use it in an existing widget, we get the instance object of the class just as we would create a new instance. This is usually done within a 'State<>' object:

class _MyHomePageState extends State<MyHomePage> {
  MySingletonClass _mySingletonClass = MySingletonClass();

  [...]
}

Comments

Even if the Singleton pattern seems to be useful, it should not be applied everywhere, otherwise the program code can become dirty and become more like procedurally generated code.

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