copy a class, C#

Question

Is there a way to copy a class in C#? Something like var dupe = MyClass(original).

Answer 1

Some reasonable solutions here serializing is a valid way to go about it as well as a clone method for each class.. Whipped this up and It seems to work for the few tests i did on it

using System.Reflection; using System.Text.StringBuilder();

public static T CopyClass2(T obj){
    T objcpy = (T)Activator.CreateInstance(typeof(T));
    obj.GetType().GetProperties().ToList()
    .ForEach( p => objcpy.GetType().GetProperty(p.Name).SetValue(objcpy, p.GetValue(obj)));
    return objcpy;

}

And here is the more verbose version I suppose, above suggests you understand Lambda Expressions which isn't common. If you respect readability (Which is totally valid) more I would use below

public static T CopyClass(T obj)
{
    T objcpy = (T)Activator.CreateInstance(typeof(T));
    foreach (var prop in obj.GetType().GetProperties())
    {
        var value = prop.GetValue(obj);
        objcpy.GetType().GetProperty(prop.Name).SetValue(objcpy, value);
    }
    return objcpy;

}

Use this method to list out property's to see if it copied to new reference.. simple it does not list properties of none primitives(structured types).. so you will get a class name

public static string ListAllProperties(T obj)
{
        StringBuilder sb = new System.Text.StringBuilder();
        PropertyInfo[] propInfo = obj.GetType().GetProperties();
        foreach (var prop in propInfo)
        {
            var value = prop.GetValue(obj) ?? "(null)";
            sb.AppendLine(prop.Name + ": " + value.ToString());
        }
        return sb.ToString();
}