Collecting Parameter

Collecting Parameter

This idiom describes when a collection is repeatedly passed as a reference along a structure, each element is then responsible for adding items to the collection.

Real World Example

Someone making a collection, lets say a church collection, passes the collection plate to the person sitting next to the isle in each row. They can then place some money onto the plate before passing it to the person sitting next to them, and so on.

Pseudo Code Example

This example code finds all the 'good' employees in each department. It passes the collection (list of employees) to each department and they can decide who they think are good employees.

  List<Employee> goodEmployees = new List<Employee>();
  
  foreach (Department department in Company){
      department.GoodEmployees(goodEmployees); // adds good employees to the collection
  }
  
  print(oldEmployees);