Question

A pattern I occasionally see is like this:

public class JustAnotherClass
{
    private JustAnotherClass()
    {
        // do something
    }

    static JustAnotherClass GetNewClass()
    {
        return new JustAnotherClass();
    }
}

Why would this ever give an advantage over just having a public constructor?

Answer 1

Why would this ever give an advantage over just having a public constructor?

It’s a factory pattern. You have a single point where these instances are made.

The advantage would be that in a future extension you could add logic, like returning a derived class instance. Or to return null under certain conditions. A constructor cannot return null.