Final answer:
The Singleton pattern restricts the instantiation of a class to a single instance, providing a global point of access to it. It is often used to ensure that only one instance of a class is created in situations where it is important, such as managing a database connection.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Singleton pattern is a design pattern in computer science that restricts the instantiation of a class to a single instance. This means that there can only be one instance of the class and it provides a global point of access to it. It is often used in situations where it is important to have only one instance of a class, such as when managing a database connection or a logger.
For example, imagine a class called DatabaseConnection that connects to a database. If multiple instances of this class are created, it can lead to issues such as unnecessary resource consumption or conflicts when accessing the database. By using the Singleton pattern, we can ensure that only one instance of the DatabaseConnection class is created and that all other parts of the program use the same instance.
In object-oriented programming, the Singleton pattern is implemented by defining a private constructor to prevent direct instantiation of the class, and providing a static method that returns the single instance of the class, creating it if necessary.