In an abstract factory design, a framework is provided for creating sub-components that inherit from a common component. In .NET, this is achieved by creating classes that implement a common interface or a set of interfaces, where the interface COMPRISES of the GENERIC METHOD declarations that are passed on to the sub-components. TNote that not just interfaces, but even abstract classes can provide the platform of creating an application based on the abstract factory pattern.

Example, say a class called CentralGovernmentRules is the abstract factory class, comprised of methods like Should Have Police() and Should Have Courts(). There may be several sub-classes like State1Rules, State2Rules etc. created that inheriting the class CentralGovernmentRules, and thus deriving its methods as well.

NOTE that the term "Factory" refers to the location in the code where the code is created.

A Factory Pattern is again an Object creation pattern. Here objects are created without knowing the class of the object. Sounds strange? Well, actually this means that the object is created by a method of the class, and not by the class's constructor. So basically the Factory Pattern is used wherever sub classes are given the priviledge of instantiating a method that can create an object.

In an abstract factory design, a framework is provided for creating sub-components that inherit from a common component. In .NET, this is achieved by creating classes that implement a common interface or a set of interfaces, where the interface comprises of the generic method declarations that are passed on to the sub-components. TNote that not just interfaces, but even abstract classes can provide the platform of creating an application based on the abstract factory pattern.

Example, say a class called CentralGovernmentRules is the abstract factory class, comprised of methods like Should Have Police() and Should Have Courts(). There may be several sub-classes like State1Rules, State2Rules etc. created that inheriting the class CentralGovernmentRules, and thus deriving its methods as well.

Note that the term "Factory" refers to the location in the code where the code is created.

A Factory Pattern is again an Object creation pattern. Here objects are created without knowing the class of the object. Sounds strange? Well, actually this means that the object is created by a method of the class, and not by the class's constructor. So basically the Factory Pattern is used wherever sub classes are given the priviledge of instantiating a method that can create an object.