What is a singleton in C#.NET?

 

A singleton is a design pattern used when only one instance of an object is created and shared; that is, it only allows one instance of itself to be created. Any attempt to create another instance simply returns a reference to the first one. Singleton classes are created by defining all class constructors as private. In addition, a private static member is created as the same type of the class, along with a public static member that returns an instance of the class. Here is a basic example:

public class SingletonExample {

private static SingletonExample _Instance;

private SingletonExample () { }

public static SingletonExample GetInstance() {

if (_Instance == null)  {

_Instance = new SingletonExample ();

}

return _Instance;

}

}