What is the difference between Dependency Injection and Service Locator?

What is the difference between Dependency Injection and Service Locator?

Dependency Injection (DI) is a design pattern that allows a class to receive its dependencies from an external source, while Service Locator is a pattern that provides a way to retrieve dependencies from a central registry.

Can you give me an example of each?

Sure! In Dependency Injection, you might pass a database connection to a class via its constructor. In Service Locator, the class would call a method on the locator to get the database connection.

Which one is better to use?

It depends on the context. Dependency Injection promotes better testability and decoupling, while Service Locator can be simpler in some scenarios but may lead to hidden dependencies.

Are there any downsides to using Dependency Injection?

Yes, Dependency Injection can introduce complexity and require more boilerplate code, especially in large applications.