Specification pattern

In computer programming, the specification pattern is a particular software design pattern, whereby business rules can be recombined by chaining the business rules together using boolean logic. The pattern is frequently used in the context of domain-driven design.

A specification pattern outlines a business rule that is combinable with other business rules. In this pattern, a unit of business logic inherits its functionality from the abstract aggregate Composite Specification class. The Composite Specification class has one function called IsSatisfiedBy that returns a boolean value. After instantiation, the specification is "chained" with other specifications, making new specifications easily maintainable, yet highly customizable business logic. Furthermore, upon instantiation the business logic may, through method invocation or inversion of control, have its state altered in order to become a delegate of other classes such as a persistence repository.

As a consequence of performing runtime composition of high-level business/domain logic, the Specification pattern is a convenient tool for converting ad-hoc user search criteria into low level logic to be processed by repositories.

Since a specification is an encapsulation of logic in a reusable form it is very simple to thoroughly unit test, and when used in this context is also an implementation of the humble object pattern.

Code examples

C#

public interface ISpecification

public abstract class CompositeSpecification : ISpecification

public class AndSpecification : CompositeSpecification

public class AndNotSpecification : CompositeSpecification

public class OrSpecification : CompositeSpecification

public class OrNotSpecification : CompositeSpecification

public class NotSpecification : CompositeSpecification

C# 6.0 with generics

public interface ISpecification

public abstract class LinqSpecification : CompositeSpecification

public abstract class CompositeSpecification : ISpecification

public class AndSpecification : CompositeSpecification

public class AndNotSpecification : CompositeSpecification

public class OrSpecification : CompositeSpecification

public class OrNotSpecification : CompositeSpecification

public class NotSpecification : CompositeSpecification

Python

from abc import ABC, abstractmethod
from dataclasses import dataclass
from typing import Any

class BaseSpecification(ABC):
@abstractmethod
def is_satisfied_by(self, candidate: Any) -> bool:
raise NotImplementedError()

def __call__(self, candidate: Any) -> bool:
return self.is_satisfied_by(candidate)

def __and__(self, other: "BaseSpecification") -> "AndSpecification":
return AndSpecification(self, other)

def __or__(self, other: "BaseSpecification") -> "OrSpecification":
return OrSpecification(self, other)

def __neg__(self) -> "NotSpecification":
return NotSpecification(self)

@dataclass(frozen=True)
class AndSpecification(BaseSpecification):
first: BaseSpecification
second: BaseSpecification

def is_satisfied_by(self, candidate: Any) -> bool:
return self.first.is_satisfied_by(candidate) and self.second.is_satisfied_by(candidate)

@dataclass(frozen=True)
class OrSpecification(BaseSpecification):
first: BaseSpecification
second: BaseSpecification

def is_satisfied_by(self, candidate: Any) -> bool:
return self.first.is_satisfied_by(candidate) or self.second.is_satisfied_by(candidate)

@dataclass(frozen=True)
class NotSpecification(BaseSpecification):
subject: BaseSpecification

def is_satisfied_by(self, candidate: Any) -> bool:
return not self.subject.is_satisfied_by(candidate)

C++

template
class ISpecification
;

template
class CompositeSpecification : public ISpecification
;

template
class AndSpecification final : public CompositeSpecification
;

template
ISpecification* CompositeSpecification::And(const ISpecification& Other) const

template
class AndNotSpecification final : public CompositeSpecification
;

template
class OrSpecification final : public CompositeSpecification
;

template
class OrNotSpecification final : public CompositeSpecification
;

template
class NotSpecification final : public CompositeSpecification
;

template
ISpecification* CompositeSpecification::AndNot(const ISpecification& Other) const

template
ISpecification* CompositeSpecification::Or(const ISpecification& Other) const

template
ISpecification* CompositeSpecification::OrNot(const ISpecification& Other) const

template
ISpecification* CompositeSpecification::Not() const

TypeScript

export interface ISpecification

export abstract class CompositeSpecification implements ISpecification

export class AndSpecification extends CompositeSpecification

export class AndNotSpecification extends CompositeSpecification

export class OrSpecification extends CompositeSpecification

export class OrNotSpecification extends CompositeSpecification

export class NotSpecification extends CompositeSpecification

Example of use

In the following example, we are retrieving invoices and sending them to a collection agency if

# they are overdue,
# notices have been sent, and
# they are not already with the collection agency.

This example is meant to show the end result of how the logic is 'chained' together.

This usage example assumes a previously defined OverdueSpecification class that is satisfied when an invoice's due date is 30 days or older, a NoticeSentSpecification class that is satisfied when three notices have been sent to the customer, and an InCollectionSpecification class that is satisfied when an invoice has already been sent to the collection agency. The implementation of these classes isn't important here.

Using these three specifications, we created a new specification called SendToCollection which will be satisfied when an invoice is overdue, when notices have been sent to the customer, and are not already with the collection agency.

var OverDue = new OverDueSpecification();
var NoticeSent = new NoticeSentSpecification();
var InCollection = new InCollectionSpecification();

// example of specification pattern logic chaining
var SendToCollection = OverDue.And(NoticeSent).And(InCollection.Not());

var InvoiceCollection = Service.GetInvoices();

foreach (var currentInvoice in InvoiceCollection)

References

*

External links

Specifications
by Eric Evans and Martin Fowler

The Specification Pattern: A Primer
by Matt Berther

The Specification Pattern: A Four Part Introduction using VB.Net
by Richard Dalton

The Specification Pattern in PHP
by Moshe Brevda

Happyr Doctrine Specification in PHP
by Happyr

The Specification Pattern in Swift
by Simon Strandgaard

The Specification Pattern in TypeScript and JavaScript
by Thiago Delgado Pinto

specification pattern in flash actionscript 3
by Rolf Vreijdenberger

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Architectural pattern (computer science)
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