I was wondering if it's valid to initialize an instance of a class within the same class? For example:
public class Person()
{
string name;
string age;
public Person getPerson()
{
Person p1=new Person();
//some logic here
return p1
}
}
I ended up doing that for a part of my code at work and thus wanted to know if there are any potential problems with doing something like this.
Yes, it is valid.
That's called a factory method.
The Calendar class, for example has a getInstance() method.
That's also useful when implementing the Singleton pattern.
Here you have a SO question about when to use a factory method.
getPerson() should be static.
Yes. Often done when you need to build large, dynamic, self-maintaining structures like Trees:
class Tree {
public IComparable Value;
private Tree Left;
private Tree Right;
public Add (IComparable value) {
if (this.Value == null) {
this.Value = value;
// RIGHT HERE!
this.Left = new Tree();
this.Right = new Tree();
} else {
if (value > this.Value) {
this.Right.Add(value);
} else {
this.Left.Add(value);
}
}
} // Add()
} // class Tree
