The use of the Singleton pattern in software product development
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.34121/1028-9763-2026-3-103-111Keywords:
design pattern, generative patterns, Singleton, hierarchical structure, software engineering, software architecture, software design, web technologies, web programmingAbstract
In the modern world, processes in software engineering are developing at a rapid pace: technologies are updated frequently and the life cycle of software solutions is becoming shorter, so previous experience cannot always serve as a reliable basis for forecasting. Under limited resources, the use of proven design solutions, in particular design patterns, is one of the ways to increase the resilience of software products to change. The article provides a systematic analysis of the creational Singleton pattern, which guarantees the existence of only one instance of a class and provides a global point of access to it throughout the program’s life cycle. The theoretical foundations of the pattern, its key properties (private constructor, static field, and getInstance method), and typical usage scenarios — logging, configuration, database connection pooling, and caching — are examined. A comparative analysis of the main implementations (Eager and Lazy Initialization, synchronized method, Double-Checked Locking with volatile, Initialization-on-Demand Holder, std::call_once) is carried out according to the criteria of thread safety, performance, and complexity. Based on the systematization of data on the average getInstance() call time in a multithreaded environment, practical recommendations are formulated for choosing an implementation depending on the programming language and the system nature. The paper also outlines cases in which alternatives — Dependency Injection or Service Locator — are more appropriate. There is no universally best implementation, since each option is a trade-off between speed, memory usage, and code complexity. Prospects for further research are identified, in particular the behaviour of Singleton in cloud environments, its interaction with IoC containers, and automated detection of the pattern using static code analysis tools. Tabl.: 2. Figs.: 5. Refs.: 11 titles.
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