Term for a Class with Multiple Interfaces

Question

Say I have a class that implements multiple interfaces. I pass the same instance around using a different interface, depending on what the consumer is interested in.

I am trying to remember what this is called. I know there is a fancy name for it - I thought it was "interface partitioning", but I'm not finding any hits. The official name and perhaps a link to a site explaining what it is would be handy.

In case I haven't explained myself well enough, here is a real world example. I have a class, call it ContextManager, that is responsible for providing access to configuration settings, session variables, user information and other utilities. Instead of passing the object around as a ContextManager, I might pass it around as an IConfigurationManager in one spot and as a IUserManager in another. This prevents the client from accessing things they shouldn't care about and allows me to reuse code within the class.

I just want to know what it is called?

Answer 1

You're describing the facet pattern, which is used to restrict an interface to obtain a smaller interface that provides less authority. Inheriting multiple interfaces is one common way to implement this pattern.

This is related, but not identical, to the Interface Segregation Principle, which is the 'I' in SOLID. That principle states that no client should be forced to depend on methods it does not use. The facet pattern is a way to adapt that principle to a large class. However, there are other more common ways to follow the interface segregation principle, such as creating smaller classes.