Question

If I have a class like this:

class myClass
{
    string foo;
    string bar;

    public myClass(string foo, string bar)
    {
        //does some stuff here
        (myClass)deserializer.Deserialize(reader); //assign the return value to the instance
    }

}

Something that would achieve this:

public myClass(string foo, string bar)
    {
        //does some stuff here
        myClass tempobject = (myClass)deserializer.Deserialize(reader); //this method has a return value of type myClass
        this.foo = tempObject.foo;
        this.bar = tempObject.bar;
    }

SomeMethod returns a value of type myClass. Can I assign this returned value to the instance of myClass that invoked the constructor?

Answer 1

No, that isn’t possible.

What you could do is make SomeMethod static and the constructor private. This is called the Factory Pattern, as you have a method used to create instances of your class. The factory pattern is often used to create instances of various different concrete classes at runtime.

---

As you’ve updated your question to say that the method isn’t in your class, then i think the best option is to make a method in your class that takes another instance of the class, then in that method, copy all properties. You’d call that in your constructor.