Question

I have a question about coding practice. I want to create a class which can’t be initialized. I believe I have 3 options:

• Abstract modifier
• Static modifier
• Private constructor

I don’t want to create a static class simply because of having to name all of my properties and methods ‘static’ – it looks messy (and I can’t use the ‘this’ keyword).

According to the MSDN:

Use the abstract modifier in a class declaration to indicate that a
class is intended only to be a base class of other classes.

Edit Nothing will inherit form this class.

However, it would be a solution (but it seems wrong to me to use it in this situation).

Or, I can make a private constructor so the class cannot be initialized.

If it helps the reason for why is this: The class is responsible for starting off a work flow process. It doesn’t need to be initialized since nothing is returned – it just needs to be ‘started’.

Demo code

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        WorkFlow wf = new WorkFlow(); // this will error which is fine!
        ComplexObject co = new ComplexObject();
        WorkFlow.Begin(co);
        Console.ReadKey();
    }
}

public class WorkFlow 
{
    private WorkFlow()
    {
        //private to prevent initialization but this feels wrong! 
    }

    public static void Begin(ComplexObject co)
    {
        //code to begin the workflow
    }
}

Answer 1

What about doing just what you have done but using your Begin method as a factory to create your workflow.

var workflow = Workflow.Begin(complexObject); 

public class WorkFlow  
{ 
    private WorkFlow() 
    { 
        //private to prevent initialization but this feels wrong!  
    } 

    public static WorkFlow Begin(ComplexObject co) 
    { 
        return new Workflow(co);
    } 
}