How to Clone a Class instance without reference?

Amresh S

Hi All,

I'm trying to clone a class instance, which have rich collection of internal property values. Theses data are fetched from the database. I want to clone this instance in which the changes made in that instance will not affect the real one time created instance. Please refer the below code snippet:

public class DB_Data
{
public DB_Data Data
{ get; internal set; }
public DB_Data()
{ }
public void DB_Schema()
{
// code to get data from DataBase;
}
}

Now, I want a copy/clone of the instance which contains the DataBase data. My problem is, when I assign a new set of values to the instance, the referred instance value gets affected. Since the info fetched form the data base is a complex process, I don't want the copy variable to be initialized with real-data base info by repeated function call to the method DB_Schema(). is there any way to do this?

Kindly share your ideas. Thanks in advance.

Regards,

Amresh S.

2 Replies

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Madhanmohan Devarajan10y ago
you can use memberwiseclone method.
public class Person
{
public int Age;
public string Name;
public IdInfo IdInfo;
public Person ShallowCopy()
{
return (Person) this.MemberwiseClone();
}
public Person DeepCopy()
{
Person other = (Person) this.MemberwiseClone();
other.IdInfo = new IdInfo(IdInfo.IdNumber);
other.Name = String.Copy(Name);
return other;
}
}
Reference: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.object.memberwiseclone(v=vs.110).aspx
Manas Mohapatra10y ago
Use deep copying to create a new instance of existing object.

http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/uploadfile/ff2f08/deep-copy-of-object-in-c-sharp/

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/129389/how-do-you-do-a-deep-copy-an-object-in-net-c-specifically