How do I initialize classes with lots of fields in an elegant way?

Question

In my application, I have to instantiate many different types of objects. Each type contains some fields and needs to be added to a containing type. How can I do this in an

Answer 1

I've always preferred using builder-pattern-with-a-twist because it provides much more than the basic approach of the builder pattern.

But what happens when you want to tell the user that she must call one builder method or the other, since it is crucial for the class you’re trying to build.

Think about a builder for a URL component. How would one think about the builder methods for encapsulating access to URL attributes, are they equally important, do they interact with each other, etc? While the query parameters or fragment are optional the hostname is not; you could say that protocol is also required but for that you can have a meaningful default, like http right?

Anyway, I don't know if this makes sense to your particular problem but I thought it would be worth mentioning for others to have a look at it.