Flutter Dart | How to return different object from class Constructor - flutter

Question

In Dart, is it possible for a constructor to cancel object creation and return a different object instead?
Use case:
Users contains a static map that maps ids to User objects.
When a User is initialized, I want the User constructor to check if User with id is already created, if so: return existing User object, else create a new User object
Example (of-course not working):
class Users {
static const Map<String, User> users = {};
}
class User {
final String id;
final String firstName;
User({required id, required firstName}) {
// If user with id already exists, return that object
if (Users.users.containsKey(id) {
return Users.users[id];
}
// Else, initialize object and save it in Users.users
this.id = id;
this.firstName = firstName;
Users.users[id] = this;
}
}
Question: IS there any way to get the above pseudo code to work?

Answer 1

As mentioned by jamesdlin you should use a factory constructor. Here's what is mentioned in the documentation:
Use the factory keyword when implementing a constructor that doesn’t
always create a new instance of its class.
And in your case this is exactly what you want. Now here's a code sample that does what you want:
Code sample
class Users {
// Also your Map cannot be const if you want to edit it.
static Map<String, User> users = {};
}
class User {
final String id;
final String firstName;
/// Base private constructor required to create the User object.
User._({required this.id, required this.firstName});
/// Factory used to create a new User if the id is available otherwise return the User
/// associated with the id.
factory User({required String id, required String firstName}) {
// If user with id already exists, return that object
if (Users.users.containsKey(id)) {
// Force casting as non nullable as we already checked that the key exists
return Users.users[id]!;
}
// Else, initialize object and save it in Users.users
final newUser = User._(id: id, firstName: firstName);
Users.users[id] = newUser;
return newUser;
}
}
Try the full code on DartPad

Answer 2

You can create a function in class to handle things you want. Here's what you can implement.
class Player {
final String name;
final String color;
Player(this.name, this.color);
Player.fromPlayer(Player another) :
color = another.color,
name = another.name;
}

Answer 3

If this is for caching purposes or you are not creating multiple instances of the Users class, I would suggest using a pattern where static is responsible for a list of class instances. Sometimes this helps to significantly reduce the amount of code:
class User {
static final Map<String, User> users = {};
final String id, firstName;
User._({required this.id, required this.firstName});
factory User({required String id, required String firstName}) => users[id] ??= User._(id: id, firstName: firstName);
}