Question

When writing a method that takes a string and populates a poco based on it, is it better to have a static Parse(string s) method like Int32.Parse() or overload the constructor so it takes a string?

Answer 1

I prefer the constructor version, but including both is easy, since the constructor can just call Parse. This is the pattern followed by the Guid struct (and likely others as well.)

I should add that if you’re not dealing with a struct, then the static method should probably be referring to the constructor (or even a separate method that both can call) since you can’t assign to this in a class constructor.

EDIT: As TrueWill points out, if you do include Parse, you should include TryParse as well. Incidentally, Guid is once again instructive: the Parse method actually uses TryParse, and just throws an exception if TryParse returns false.