What is a singleton in C#?
What it is: A class for which there is just one, persistent instance across the lifetime of an application. See Singleton Pattern.
When you should use it: As little as possible. Only when you are absolutely certain that you need it. I'm reluctant to say "never", but there is usually a better alternative, such as Dependency Injection or simply a static class.
A singleton is a class which only allows one instance of itself to be created - and gives simple, easy access to said instance. The singleton premise is a pattern across software development.
There is a C# implementation "Implementing the Singleton Pattern in C#" covering most of what you need to know - including some good advice regarding thread safety.
To be honest, It's very rare that you need to implement a singleton - in my opinion it should be one of those things you should be aware of, even if it's not used too often.
another way to implement singleton in c#, i personally prefer this way because you can access the instance of the singeton class as a property instead of a method.
public class Singleton
{
private static Singleton instance;
private Singleton() { }
public static Singleton Instance
{
get
{
if (instance == null)
instance = new Singleton();
return instance;
}
}
//instance methods
}
but well, as far as i know both ways are considered 'right' so it's just a thing of personal flavor.
You asked for C#. Trivial example:
public class Singleton
{
private Singleton()
{
// Prevent outside instantiation
}
private static readonly Singleton _singleton = new Singleton();
public static Singleton GetSingleton()
{
return _singleton;
}
}