🐑 Prototype

Real world example

Remember dolly? The sheep that was cloned! Lets not get into the details but the key point here is that it is all about cloning

In plain words

Create object based on an existing object through cloning.

Wikipedia says

The prototype pattern is a creational design pattern in software development. It is used when the type of objects to create is determined by a prototypical instance, which is cloned to produce new objects.

In short, it allows you to create a copy of an existing object and modify it to your needs, instead of going through the trouble of creating an object from scratch and setting it up.

Programmatic Example

In PHP, it can be easily done using clone

class Sheep
{
    protected $name;
    protected $category;

    public function __construct(string $name, string $category = 'Mountain Sheep')
    {
        $this->name = $name;
        $this->category = $category;
    }

    public function setName(string $name)
    {
        $this->name = $name;
    }

    public function getName()
    {
        return $this->name;
    }

    public function setCategory(string $category)
    {
        $this->category = $category;
    }

    public function getCategory()
    {
        return $this->category;
    }
}

Then it can be cloned like below

$original = new Sheep('Jolly');
echo $original->getName(); // Jolly
echo $original->getCategory(); // Mountain Sheep

// Clone and modify what is required
$cloned = clone $original;
$cloned->setName('Dolly');
echo $cloned->getName(); // Dolly
echo $cloned->getCategory(); // Mountain sheep

Also you could use the magic method __clone to modify the cloning behavior.

When to use?

When an object is required that is similar to existing object or when the creation would be expensive as compared to cloning.