Question

I have some code as shown below. I guess it is Singleton pattern. Why do I need a static constructor. Also what is the advantages of this? Thanks for your reply …

  public sealed class Myclass
  {
    static Myclass()
    {
        Myclass.Application = new Myclass();
    }

    protected Myclass()
    {

    }

    static Myclass _application;

    public static Myclass Application
    {
        get { return Myclass._application; }
        protected set { Myclass._application = value; }
    }

    string _name;

    public string Name
    {
        get { return _name}
        protected set { _name= value; }
    }
 }

Answer 1

To start with, this class is somewhat odd for having a protected constructor. It’s not a fatal flaw given that it’s sealed, but it’s distinctly odd.

There’s a potential difference in timing between this code and the nearly-equivalent use of a static variable initializer:

static readonly Myclass _application = new Myclass();

(There’s no need for a setter in this case, of course.)

You can’t do that with an automatically implemented property though.

Using static initialization in some form gets you “free” thread-safety – you don’t need to do any locking in order to get lazy initialization.

You may find my singleton implementation article interesting for more options.