In object-oriented programming (OOP), a factory is an object for creating other objects – formally a factory is a function or method that returns objects of a varying prototype or class[1] from some method call, which is assumed to be "new".[lower-alpha 1] More broadly, a subroutine that returns a "new" object may be referred to as a "factory", as in factory method or factory function. This is a basic concept in OOP, and forms the basis for a number of related software design patterns.