Bean Scopes - Prototype scope

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In prototype scope whenever a bean is referenced (either in <property> tags or in getBean() method),  a new instance of that bean is returned instead of returning the same instance again and again.

Consider following figure.

In above figure there are four beans namely bean1, bean2, bean3 and bean4. Bean1 is defined with prototype scope and is being injected into bean2, bean3, and bean4.  Then, unlike singleton beans, each of bean 2,3 and 4 will have their own instance of bean1. Thus there would be three separate instances of bean1 instead of one common instance.

We can also check this by code as shown in following examples.

Example1: (When a bean is referenced in <property> tags)

bean1.java

package examples.beanscopes;

public class Bean1 {
   
    public void show(){
        System.out.println("This is Prototype scoped bean");
    }
}

bean2.java

package examples.beanscopes;

public class Bean2 {
   
    Bean1 memberBean;

    public void setMemberBean(Bean1 memberBean){
        this.memberBean = memberBean;
    }
   
    public Bean1 getMemberBean(){
        return memberBean;
    }
   
}

bean3.java

package examples.beanscopes;

public class Bean3 {
   
    Bean1 memberBean;

    public void setMemberBean(Bean1 memberBean){
        this.memberBean = memberBean;
    }
   
    public Bean1 getMemberBean(){
        return memberBean;
    }
   
}

bean4.java

package examples.beanscopes;

public class Bean4 {
   
    Bean1 memberBean;

    public void setMemberBean(Bean1 memberBean){
        this.memberBean = memberBean;
    }
   
    public Bean1 getMemberBean(){
        return memberBean;
    }
   
}

ApplicationContext.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<beans xmlns="https://www.springframework.org/schema/beans" 
xmlns:xsi="https://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="https://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
https://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd">

<bean id="prototypeBean" class="examples.beanscopes.Bean1" scope="prototype"/>

<bean id="bean2" class="examples.beanscopes.Bean2">
<property name="memberBean" ref="prototypeBean"/>
</bean>

<bean id="bean3" class="examples.beanscopes.Bean3">
<property name="memberBean" ref="prototypeBean"/>
</bean>

<bean id="bean4" class="examples.beanscopes.Bean4">
<property name="memberBean" ref="prototypeBean"/>
</bean>

</beans>

MainApp.java

package examples.beanscopes;

import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext;

public class MainApp {
    public static void main(String args[]){
        ApplicationContext ctx=new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("resources/ApplicationContext.xml");
        Bean2 bean2Obj = (Bean2)ctx.getBean("bean2");
        Bean3 bean3Obj = (Bean3)ctx.getBean("bean3");
        Bean4 bean4Obj = (Bean4)ctx.getBean("bean4");
       
       
        if(bean2Obj.memberBean == bean3Obj.memberBean)
            System.out.println("Bean2 and Bean3 contain same instance of prototype scoped bean1");
        else   
            System.out.println("Bean2 and Bean3 DOES NOT CONTAIN same instance of prototype scoped bean1");
       
       
        if(bean3Obj.memberBean == bean4Obj.memberBean)
            System.out.println("Bean3 and Bean4 contain same instance of prototype scoped bean1");
        else   
            System.out.println("Bean3 and Bean4 DOES NOT CONTAIN same instance of prototype scoped bean1");
       
       
        if(bean2Obj.memberBean == bean4Obj.memberBean)
            System.out.println("Bean2 and Bean4 contain same instance of prototype scoped bean1");
        else   
            System.out.println("Bean2 and Bean4 DOES NOT CONTAIN same instance of prototype scoped bean1");
       
       
       
    }

}

Output:

Bean2 and Bean3 DOES NOT CONTAIN same instance of prototype scoped bean1
Bean3 and Bean4 DOES NOT CONTAIN same instance of prototype scoped bean1
Bean2 and Bean4 DOES NOT CONTAIN same instance of prototype scoped bean1

This shows that each of bean2,  3 and 4 have their own instances of bean1. Had we defined bean1 as singleton then output would be:

Bean2 and Bean3 contain same instance of prototype scoped bean1
Bean3 and Bean4 contain same instance of prototype scoped bean1
Bean2 and Bean4 contain same instance of prototype scoped bean1

Example2: (When bean is referenced in getBean() method)

bean1.java

package examples.beanscopes;

public class Bean1 {
   
    public void show(){
        System.out.println("This is Prototype scoped bean");
    }
}

ApplicationContext.java

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<beans xmlns="https://www.springframework.org/schema/beans" 
xmlns:xsi="https://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="https://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
https://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd">

<bean id="prototypeBean" class="examples.beanscopes.Bean1" scope="prototype"/>

</beans>

MainApp.java

package examples.beanscopes;

import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
import org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext;

public class MainApp {
    public static void main(String args[]){
        ApplicationContext ctx=new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("resources/ApplicationContext.xml");
        Bean1 obj1 = (Bean1)ctx.getBean("prototypeBean");
        Bean1 obj2 = (Bean1)ctx.getBean("prototypeBean");
       
       
       
        if(obj1 == obj2)
            System.out.println("Both are same instances");
        else   
            System.out.println("Both are different instances");
       
               
    }

}

Output:

Both are different instances

Here also if we had defined bean1 as singleton then output would be:

Both are same instances

Thus whenever a prototyped bean is referenced,a new instance of this prototyped bean is created and returned, instead of returning same instance again and again.

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