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Is there a name meaning "not a singleton"?

Richard Nagle
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10 Answers10

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Castle Windsor uses the term "transient" to describe all non-Singleton objects.

I personally prefer the term "non-Singleton" though.

David Arno
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Yes, there is a Multiton pattern, but it means something very specific. It's not simply everything that's not a Singleton.

Bill the Lizard
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    It's not quite what the OP asked for though, a Multiton is still a hash of Singletons. I think what the question is about is basically a factory that always generates fresh instances of an object. – gotofritz Aug 12 '13 at 13:55
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Prototype. It is used as a scope in Spring framework to identify dependency which will always be new instance when injected.

Marko
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When someone asks me if a class is a Singleton (and it isn't), I just say no, it's a regular class.

tvanfosson
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Multi-Instance ?

http://elegantcode.com/2008/04/17/the-opposite-of-a-singleton/

Eoin Campbell
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Actually, there is a variant on the Singleton called Multiton or Multiplton or something like that. Rather than having one instance, you have n instances where n is a specific value. I'm not sure if the Gang of Four describe this application in their book, but I learned about it in my Software Engineering 361 class.

But if you have an unconstrained number of instances, I don't think there is a name for it.

Thomas Owens
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Simply, a 'Single Instance of a Class.'

CodingWithoutComments
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This is an old post, but if someone still comes across then a better word is "multiplex" over "transient". IMHO

Definition:

noun: a system or signal involving simultaneous transmission of several messages along a single channel of communication.

AV2000
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  • Multiplex has a completely different meaning than singleton, but not the opposite. A multiplex contains many parts, whereas a singleton is a unique instance. – Superole Aug 10 '20 at 12:27
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There is a related thread about this over at English Language & Usage. Looking through the various suggestions posted there, I think the best one is

replicant

I've adopted this term in the naming of methods and the wording of comments in a little PHP Reflection factory I've built.

Tim Rogers
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How about the word "Instanced"

benathon
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  • I recommend against rhetoric questions in answers. They risk being misunderstood as not an answer at all. You are trying to answer the question at the top of this page, aren't you? Otherwise please delete this post. – Yunnosch Jul 30 '22 at 22:27
  • To still be a rhetoric question, just lacking the "?".... not really an improvement. – Yunnosch Jul 31 '22 at 01:16