SC.ObjectCloner 1.0.0

dotnet add package SC.ObjectCloner --version 1.0.0
NuGet\Install-Package SC.ObjectCloner -Version 1.0.0
This command is intended to be used within the Package Manager Console in Visual Studio, as it uses the NuGet module's version of Install-Package.
<PackageReference Include="SC.ObjectCloner" Version="1.0.0" />
For projects that support PackageReference, copy this XML node into the project file to reference the package.
paket add SC.ObjectCloner --version 1.0.0
#r "nuget: SC.ObjectCloner, 1.0.0"
#r directive can be used in F# Interactive and Polyglot Notebooks. Copy this into the interactive tool or source code of the script to reference the package.
// Install SC.ObjectCloner as a Cake Addin
#addin nuget:?package=SC.ObjectCloner&version=1.0.0

// Install SC.ObjectCloner as a Cake Tool
#tool nuget:?package=SC.ObjectCloner&version=1.0.0

Introduction

Object cloning is deceptively complicated. Do you deep copy everything or make references to existing objects? What do you do about IDs? How do you handle self-referential structures?

The C# ICloneable interface is woefully inadequate. This project attempts to do better. (Also, I wanted to write a fluent interface and it seemed like a good excuse).

Usage

Simple deep clone

var sourceObject = new Person(){...}
var cloner = ObjectCloneFactory.CreateCloner(sourceObject);
var clonedObject = cloner.Clone();

Skip cloning Id properties

A common pattern is to assign Id properties during object creation. Usually you'd want copies of these objects to have new IDs, not copies of the original ones. This will use the default value for any property called "Id" wherever it occurs in the object structure:

var sourceObject = new Person(){...}
var cloner = ObjectCloneFactory.CreateCloner(sourceObject);
cloner.SelectProperties(p => p.Info.Name == "Id").KeepDefaultValue();
var clonedObject = cloner.Clone();

Multiple operations

Clone a Person object and...

  • Use the default (newly created) Id

  • Prepend "Copy of " to the value of the property called "Name"

  • Use the existing object reference of the Address property from the source, instead of cloning a new identical address

      var cloner = ObjectCloneFactory.CreateCloner(sourceObject);
      cloner.SelectProperty(c => c.Id).KeepDefaultValue();
      cloner.SelectProperty(c => c.Name).Amend(srcVal => "Copy of "+srcVal.PropertyValue);
      cloner.SelectProperty(c => c.CurrentAddress).UseExistingReference();
      var clonedObject = cloner.Clone();
    

Known Issues

  • Self referential structures (lists containing items that reference the parent list) are not copied. They are detected and an exception is thrown which is (slightly) better than letting it recurse into a stack overflow.
  • Objects to be cloned need a default constructor. Anything that needs constructor parameters can't be cloned.

Performance

Let's just say performance was not one of the original design goals. Apart from the reflection overhead it also creates a bunch of temporary objects that need to be cleaned up which is fine for small objects but quite nasty if you're cloning large lists of complex objects. There's almost certainly room for improvement there.

Product Compatible and additional computed target framework versions.
.NET net5.0 was computed.  net5.0-windows was computed.  net6.0 was computed.  net6.0-android was computed.  net6.0-ios was computed.  net6.0-maccatalyst was computed.  net6.0-macos was computed.  net6.0-tvos was computed.  net6.0-windows was computed.  net7.0 was computed.  net7.0-android was computed.  net7.0-ios was computed.  net7.0-maccatalyst was computed.  net7.0-macos was computed.  net7.0-tvos was computed.  net7.0-windows was computed.  net8.0 was computed.  net8.0-android was computed.  net8.0-browser was computed.  net8.0-ios was computed.  net8.0-maccatalyst was computed.  net8.0-macos was computed.  net8.0-tvos was computed.  net8.0-windows was computed. 
.NET Core netcoreapp2.0 was computed.  netcoreapp2.1 was computed.  netcoreapp2.2 was computed.  netcoreapp3.0 was computed.  netcoreapp3.1 was computed. 
.NET Standard netstandard2.0 is compatible.  netstandard2.1 was computed. 
.NET Framework net461 was computed.  net462 was computed.  net463 was computed.  net47 was computed.  net471 was computed.  net472 was computed.  net48 was computed.  net481 was computed. 
MonoAndroid monoandroid was computed. 
MonoMac monomac was computed. 
MonoTouch monotouch was computed. 
Tizen tizen40 was computed.  tizen60 was computed. 
Xamarin.iOS xamarinios was computed. 
Xamarin.Mac xamarinmac was computed. 
Xamarin.TVOS xamarintvos was computed. 
Xamarin.WatchOS xamarinwatchos was computed. 
Compatible target framework(s)
Included target framework(s) (in package)
Learn more about Target Frameworks and .NET Standard.
  • .NETStandard 2.0

    • No dependencies.

NuGet packages

This package is not used by any NuGet packages.

GitHub repositories

This package is not used by any popular GitHub repositories.

Version Downloads Last updated
1.0.0 654 12/31/2018