Software Architect's Handbook

Dependency Inversion Principle (DIP)

The Dependency Inversion Principle (DIP) is a principle that describes how to handle dependencies and write loosely coupled software. In their book Agile Principles, Patterns, and Practices in C#, Robert C. Martin and Micah Martin state the principle as follows:

"The high-level modules should not depend on low-level modules. Both should depend on abstractions.

Abstractions should not depend upon details. Details should depend upon abstractions."

For example, let's say that Class A depends on Class B and Class B depends on Class C:

In a direct dependency graph, at compile time, Class A references Class B ...