Pipe and Filter

Overview

There are various systems that involve multiple stages of transformation of discrete data items from input to output. To make these transformations more efficient and practical, it’s often useful to create them as standalone and reusable components.

For example, a compiler takes input which performs lexical analysis, and tokens are generated. These tokens are used for syntax analysis, which generates a parse tree, followed by semantic analysis, and so on. An output of one function becomes the input of the next, and hence data flows.