Constructor vs. Factory in .NET Framework

Question

Below is an article about .net framework\'s use of patterns. I\'m not sure I understand the bolded part in the excerpt below. Is it implying if you change the details of creati

Answer 1

I actually think that the examples they've provided are not necessarily great examples.

The Factory pattern becomes more useful in .NET when you're constructing classes. For example, look at the WebRequest class.

This class is normally instantiated by calling:

WebRequest request = WebRequest.Create(url);

The WebRequest.Create method uses the Factory pattern. Depending on the type of URL, it will create a different type (subclass) of WebRequest. If you pass it an http:// url, for example, you will actually create an HttpWebRequest instance - an ftp:// URL will create an FtpWebRequest.

By using the Factory pattern here, more URL types can be added later without changing any code on the client side - you just pass in the different URL (as a string), and get a new object.