CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#.net
cogumel0
cogumel0

Reputation: 2681

Class design - ctor or properties with public setter

Pretty simple question, say I have a class with 20 reference type properties that I know will only be set at class creation/immediately after class is created and where none of the properties are really mandatory.

In this scenario, would best practice be to create a ctor accepting 20 properties (which, since they are all reference types, would still allow you to pass null if you wanted to) and to ensure none of my properties have a setter

or ...

To simply not have a ctor at all and just provide a setter for all of my properties?

I am leaning towards the latter because of ease of implementation and (arguably) cleaner code even though that doesn't guarantee object immutability, but again these classes are only used internally and I know that I won't be changing them anyway.

EDIT

If you're going to vote to close the question, at least have the decency of explaining why you think the question is not "good enough" for the ohh-so-high SO standards.

If this is not a question that belongs here, I really don't know what SO is for anymore.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 75

Answers (3)

Robin Bennett
Robin Bennett

Reputation: 3231

You should make them properties and use an object initializer:

class Cat
{
    // Auto-implemented properties.
    public int Age { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public object OtherProperty { get; set; }
}

Cat cat = new Cat { Age = 10, Name = "Fluffy" };

This gives you nice compact code, without having to specify the properties you don't need. Even if you do specify all the properties, it's not much longer.

I'd use a constructor where properties are mandatory, or based on some sort of source object like a DataRow or file.

Upvotes: 0

Ondřej Kolář
Ondřej Kolář

Reputation: 1

It looks like Single Responsibility Principle violation. It's recommended to have 0-3 parameters in method including constructor.

Upvotes: -1

Tim Schmelter
Tim Schmelter

Reputation: 460238

If all these properties aren't mandatory and they don't have to be readonly, you don't need a constructor. No one wants to call a constructor that takes 20 arguments, especially if they aren't necessary.

So even if this question tends to be subjective, use properties and omit the constructor.

Upvotes: 3

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