An example of using static factory methods in place of constructors

DBConnection_With_Factory.cs

public class DBConnection
{
  private const int MAXCONNECTIONS = 5;
  private static int connectionsOpen = 0;

  private DBConnection(){}

  // static factory in some sort of pooling situation
  public static DBConnection GetConnection()
  {
     while (connectionsOpen >= MAXCONNECTIONS)
        // spin
     
     // now that we've got a connection available, let's up the counter and return it
     connectionsOpen++;
     return new DBConnection();
  }

  public static DBConnection DBConnectionWithConnectionString(string pConnectionString)
  {
    // we'd return a new DBConnection object based on the connection string passed in
  }

  // NOTE: if this and the above were constructors, we'd get a compiler error b/c of the matching signatures!
  public static DBConnection DBConnectionByName(string pName)
  {
     // maybe we have specific named instances?  I don't know, but this method is more descriptive than using a constructor
  }

}