Data Access Object Pattern

Data Access Object Pattern or DAO pattern is used to separate low level data accessing API or operations from high level business services. Following are the participants in Data Access Object Pattern.

• Data Access Object Interface - This interface defines the standard operations to be performed on a model object(s).
• Data Access Object concrete class - This class implements above interface. This class is responsible to get data from a data source which can be database / xml or any other storage mechanism.
• Model Object or Value Object - This object is simple POJO containing get/set methods to store data retrieved using DAO class.

Implementation

We are going to create a Student object acting as a Model or Value Object.StudentDao is Data Access Object Interface.StudentDaoImpl is concrete class implementing Data Access Object Interface. DaoPatternDemo, our demo class, will use StudentDao to demonstrate the use of Data Access Object pattern.

Step 1

Create Value Object.
Student.java

public class Student {
   private String name;
   private int rollNo;

   Student(String name, int rollNo){
      this.name = name;
      this.rollNo = rollNo;
   }

   public String getName() {
      return name;
   }

   public void setName(String name) {
      this.name = name;
   }

   public int getRollNo() {
      return rollNo;
   }

   public void setRollNo(int rollNo) {
      this.rollNo = rollNo;
   }
}

Step 2

Create Data Access Object Interface.
StudentDao.java

import java.util.List;

public interface StudentDao {
   public List<Student> getAllStudents();
   public Student getStudent(int rollNo);
   public void updateStudent(Student student);
   public void deleteStudent(Student student);
}

Step 3

Create concrete class implementing above interface.
StudentDaoImpl.java

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

public class StudentDaoImpl implements StudentDao {
 
   //list is working as a database
   List<Student> students;

   public StudentDaoImpl(){
      students = new ArrayList<Student>();
      Student student1 = new Student("Robert",0);
      Student student2 = new Student("John",1);
      students.add(student1);
      students.add(student2);  
   }
   @Override
   public void deleteStudent(Student student) {
      students.remove(student.getRollNo());
      System.out.println("Student: Roll No " + student.getRollNo() + ", deleted from database");
   }

   //retrive list of students from the database
   @Override
   public List<Student> getAllStudents() {
      return students;
   }

   @Override
   public Student getStudent(int rollNo) {
      return students.get(rollNo);
   }

   @Override
   public void updateStudent(Student student) {
      students.get(student.getRollNo()).setName(student.getName());
      System.out.println("Student: Roll No " + student.getRollNo() + ", updated in the database");
   }
}

Step 4

Use the StudentDao to demonstrate Data Access Object pattern usage.
DaoPatternDemo.java

public class DaoPatternDemo {
   public static void main(String[] args) {
      StudentDao studentDao = new StudentDaoImpl();

      //print all students
      for (Student student : studentDao.getAllStudents()) {
         System.out.println("Student: [RollNo : " + student.getRollNo() + ", Name : " + student.getName() + " ]");
      }


      //update student
      Student student =studentDao.getAllStudents().get(0);
      student.setName("Michael");
      studentDao.updateStudent(student);

      //get the student
      studentDao.getStudent(0);
      System.out.println("Student: [RollNo : " + student.getRollNo() + ", Name : " + student.getName() + " ]");  
   }
}

Step 5

Verify the output.

Student: [RollNo : 0, Name : Robert ]
Student: [RollNo : 1, Name : John ]
Student: Roll No 0, updated in the database
Student: [RollNo : 0, Name : Michael ]