Question

I’d like to have the following setup:

class Descriptor
{
    public string Name { get; private set; }
    public IList<Parameter> Parameters { get; private set; } // Set to ReadOnlyCollection

    private Descrtiptor() { }
    public Descriptor GetByName(string Name) { // Magic here, caching, loading, parsing, etc. }
}

class Parameter
{
    public string Name { get; private set; }
    public string Valuie { get; private set; }
}

The whole structure will be read-only once loaded from an XML file. I’d like to make it so, that only the Descriptor class can instantiate a Parameter.

One way to do this would be to make an IParameter interface and then make Parameter class private in the Descriptor class, but in real-world usage the Parameter will have several properties, and I’d like to avoid redefining them twice.

Is this somehow possible?

Answer 1

Make it a private nested class that implements a particular interface. Then, only the outer class can instantiate it, but anyone can consume it (through the interface). Example:

interface IParameter
{ 
    string Name { get; } 
    string Value { get; }
}

class Descriptor
{
    public string Name { get; private set; }
    public IList<IParameter> Parameters { get; private set; }

    private Descriptor() { }
    public Descriptor GetByName(string Name) { ... }

    class Parameter : IParameter
    {
        public string Name { get; private set; }
        public string Value { get; private set; }
    }
}

If you really must avoid the interface, you can create a public abstract class that has all of the properties but declares a protected constructor. You can then create a private nested class that inherits from the public abstract that can only be created by the outer class and return instances of it as the base type. Example:

public abstract AbstractParameter
{ 
    public string Name { get; protected set; } 
    public string Value { get; protected set; }
}

class Descriptor
{
    public string Name { get; private set; }
    public IList<AbstractParameter> Parameters { get; private set; }

    private Descriptor() { }
    public Descriptor GetByName(string Name) { ... }

    private class NestedParameter : AbstractParameter
    {
        public NestedParameter() { /* whatever goes here */ }
    }
}