Explain the Prototype Design Pattern

The Prototype Design Pattern is a creational pattern that allows you to create new objects by copying an existing object (prototype), rather than creating new instances from scratch.

🔁 Key Idea:
Create new objects by cloning a prototype, which is useful when object creation is costly or complex.

✅ Use Case:
When creating a new object is expensive.

When you want to avoid subclassing.

When you need many similar objects.

👨‍💻 Example in C#:
csharp
Copy
Edit
public abstract class Prototype
{
public abstract Prototype Clone();
}

public class ConcretePrototype : Prototype
{
public int Data;
public override Prototype Clone()
{
return (Prototype)this.MemberwiseClone();
}
}
📌 Benefits:
Avoids the cost of creating objects from scratch.

Simplifies object creation logic.

Enables runtime object copying.

Prototype pattern refers to creating duplicate object while keeping performance in mind. This type of design pattern comes under creational pattern as this pattern provides one of the best ways to create an object.

This pattern involves implementing a prototype interface which tells to create a clone of the current object. This pattern is used when creation of object directly is costly. For example, an object is to be created after a costly database operation. We can cache the object, returns its clone on next request and update the database as and when needed thus reducing database calls.