Adapter pattern is a structural design pattern that allows objects with incompatible interfaces to collaborate. It involves creating an adapter class that acts as a bridge between two incompatible interfaces, translating requests from the client to the adaptee in a format it understands, kind of like how your iPhone charger adapts to different electrical outlets around the world.

How to use it in a sentence

• "I was trying to integrate this legacy billing system into our new microservices architecture, but the interfaces were completely incompatible. Luckily, I remembered the trusty ol' Adapter pattern and whipped up an adapter in no time!"

• "So, the product manager comes up to me and says 'Hey, we need to switch payment processors, but keep the existing API interface'. I just smiled and said 'No problem, I'll just use the Adapter pattern and make it work like magic!', knowing full well I'd rather be optimizing our Kubernetes cluster."

If you actually want to learn more...

Here are a few resources that dive deeper into the Adapter pattern and evolutionary design:

• Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture: Adapter - Martin Fowler provides a succinct explanation of the Adapter pattern, its structure, and when to use it.

• The Death of Design Patterns - In this thought-provoking article, Fowler argues that design patterns like Adapter have become less relevant with modern programming languages and techniques, but still have their place in certain contexts.

• Evolutionary Database Design - While not directly related to the Adapter pattern, this article explores how to apply evolutionary design principles to database design, a key aspect of building adaptable software systems.

Note: the Developer Dictionary is in Beta. Please direct feedback to skye@statsig.com.