State Pattern
The State Pattern is a behavioral design pattern that allows an object to alter its behavior when its internal state changes, making it appear as if the object changed its class. It involves defining separate state objects for each possible state of the context object, with the context delegating state-specific behavior to the current state object. This pattern helps manage complex state-dependent logic by encapsulating state-specific code and promoting cleaner, more maintainable code.
Developers should use the State Pattern when an object's behavior depends on its state and it must change its behavior at runtime based on that state, such as in UI components, game characters, or workflow systems. It is particularly useful for avoiding large conditional statements (like switch or if-else blocks) that become hard to maintain as states increase, and it adheres to the Open/Closed Principle by making it easy to add new states without modifying existing code.