Class Hierarchy Design Patterns in JavaScript: Unleash the Power of Composition

Simplify Complex Object Structures with Proven Techniques

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Object-oriented programming (OOP) principles are fundamental in JavaScript, and class hierarchy design patterns play a crucial role in building maintainable and scalable applications. These patterns help you organize and structure your code, making it easier to reason about, extend, and modify.

In this article, we’ll explore three popular class hierarchy design patterns: Composition, Inheritance, and Mixins, and understand when to use each one effectively.

Composition: The Favored Approach

Composition is the act of creating complex objects by combining simpler objects together. It’s considered a more flexible and reusable approach compared to inheritance. Here’s an example of how you can use composition in JavaScript:

// Basic object representing a person
const person = {
  name: 'John Doe',
  age: 30,
  greet() {
    console.log(`Hello, my name is ${this.name}`);
  }
};

// Object representing an employee
const employee = {
  ...person, // Spread operator to copy properties from person
  company: 'Acme Inc.',
  role: 'Software Engineer',
  introduceYourself() {
    console.log(`I work at…