CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#
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Reputation: 1100

How to "disable" access to a class in a library?

Iam writing a library. I have a class called Database and a class called DBManager... Database.cs is doing simple CRUD stuff for a single (defined in the contructor) database. DBManager is handling all the Database instances etc.

I want that users can only call DBManager and never instantiate a Database class for themselves (DBManager should be the only class doing this!) The layers are: User -> DBManager -> Database

How can i achieve something like this?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 107

Answers (2)

Parrish Husband
Parrish Husband

Reputation: 3178

Mark it Internal:

public AccessibleClass 
{
}

internal NonAccessibleClass 
{
}

If you need the Database class to be usable from the outside but not instantiated, then simply change the constructor accessors.

public class Database
{
    internal Database() 
    {
       //initialize
    } 
}

However it sounds like you're going for the Factory pattern.

Upvotes: 4

Ondrej Tucny
Ondrej Tucny

Reputation: 27962

So currently both Database and DBManager are public. And you want to limit instantiation of Database to a controlled way:

I want that users can only call DBManager and never instantiate a Database class for themselves (DBManager should be the only class doing this!)

The easiest is adjusting accessibility of Database's constructor using the internal modifier:

public class Database
{
    …

    internal Database(string connectionString)
    {
        …
    }
}

That way, only classes in the same assembly will be able to call the constructor.

Upvotes: 3

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