Singleton with parameters

Question

I need a singleton class to be instantiated with some arguments. The way I'm doing it now is:

class SingletonExample
{
     private SingletonExample mInstance;
     //other members... 
     private SingletonExample()
     {

     } 
     public SingletonExample Instance
     {
         get
         {
              if (mInstance == null)
              {
                  throw new Exception("Object not created");
              }
              return mInstance;
         }
     }

     public void Create(string arg1, string arg2)
     {
         mInstance = new SingletonExample();
         mInstance.Arg1 = arg1;
         mInstance.ObjectCaller = new ObjectCaller(arg2);
         //etc... basically, create object...
     } 
}

The instance is created 'late', meaning I don't have all of the needed arguments on app startup.

In general I don't like forcing an ordering of method calls, but I don't see another way here. The IoC wouldn't resolve it either, since where I can register it in the container, I can also call Create()...

Do you consider this an OK scenario? Do you have some other idea?

edit: I know that what I wrote as an example it's not thread safe, thread-safe isn't part of the question

Answer 1

Singleton is ugly but since user whateva can't be bothered to correct his own code...

public class Singleton 
{ 
    private static Singleton _instance = null; 

    private static Object _mutex = new Object();

    private Singleton(object arg1, object arg2) 
    { 
        // whatever
    } 

    public static Singleton GetInstance(object arg1, object arg2)
    { 
        if (_instance == null) 
        { 
          lock (_mutex) // now I can claim some form of thread safety...
          {
              if (_instance == null) 
              { 
                  _instance = new Singleton(arg1, arg2);
              }
          } 
        }

        return _instance;
    }
}  

Skeet blogged about this years ago I think, it's pretty reliable. No exceptions necessary, you aren't in the business of remembering what objects are supposed to be singletons and handling the fallout when you get it wrong.

Edit: the types aren't relevant use what you want, object is just used here for convenience.