Question

I have a class which you pass in a folder and then it goes off and processes a lot of data within the specified folder.

For instance:

MyClass myClass = new MyClass(@"C:\temp");

Now it goes off and reads say a couple of thousand files and populates the class with data.

Should I move this data out from the constructor and have it as a separate method, such as the following?

MyClass myClass = new MyClass();
myClass.LoadFromDirectory(@"C:\temp");

Answer 1

Maybe you should try it this way with a static method that returns an instance of the object.

var myClass = MyClass.LoadFromDirectory(@"C:\temp");

This will keep the initialization code outside of your constructor, as well as giving you that “one line” declaration you are looking for.

---

Going on the comment from below from the poster, by adding State an implementation could be like so:

public class MyClass
{

#region Constructors 

    public MyClass(string directory)
    {
        this.Directory = directory;
    }

#endregion

#region Properties

    public MyClassState State {get;private set;}

    private string _directory;

    public string Directory 
    {
        get { return _directory;} 
        private set 
        {
            _directory = value; 
            if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(value)) 
                this.State = MyClassState.Unknown; 
            else 
                this.State = MyClassState.Initialized;
        }
    }

#endregion



    public void LoadFromDirectory()
    {
        if (this.State != MyClassState.Initialized || this.State != MyClassState.Loaded)
            throw new InvalidStateException();

        // Do loading

        this.State = MyClassState.Loaded;
    }

}

public class InvalidStateException : Exception {}


public enum MyClassState
{
    Unknown,
    Initialized,
    Loaded
}