Clone derived class from base class method

Question

I have an abstract base class Base which has some common properties, and many derived ones which implement different logic but rarely have additional fields.

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Answer 1

If performance is not important for your case, you can simplify your code by creating just one general clone method which can clone whatever to whatever if properties are same:

Base base = new Base(){...};
Derived derived = XmlClone.CloneToDerived(base);


public static class XmlClone
{
    public static D CloneToDerived(T pattern)
        where T : class
    {
        using (var ms = new MemoryStream())
        {
            using (XmlWriter writer = XmlWriter.Create(ms))
            {
                Type typePattern = typeof(T);
                Type typeTarget = typeof(D);

                XmlSerializer xmlSerializerIn = new XmlSerializer(typePattern);
                xmlSerializerIn.Serialize(writer, pattern);
                ms.Position = 0;
                XmlSerializer xmlSerializerOut = new XmlSerializer(typeTarget, new XmlRootAttribute(typePattern.Name));
                D copy = (D)xmlSerializerOut.Deserialize(ms);                    
                return copy;
            }
        }
    }
}