You can use Nested MemberwiseClone to do a deep copy. Its almost the same speed as copying a value struct, and its an order of magnitude faster than (a) reflection or (b) serialization (as described in other answers on this page).
Note that if you use Nested MemberwiseClone for a deep copy, you have to manually implement a ShallowCopy for each nested level in the class, and a DeepCopy which calls all said ShallowCopy methods to create a complete clone. This is simple: only a few lines in total, see the demo code below.
Here is the output of the code showing the relative performance difference (4.77 seconds for deep nested MemberwiseCopy vs. 39.93 seconds for Serialization). Using nested MemberwiseCopy is almost as fast as copying a struct, and copying a struct is pretty darn close to the theoretical maximum speed .NET is capable of, which is probably quite close to the speed of the same thing in C or C++ (but would have to run some equivalent benchmarks to check this claim).
Demo of shallow and deep copy, using classes and MemberwiseClone:
Create Bob
Bob.Age=30, Bob.Purchase.Description=Lamborghini
Clone Bob >> BobsSon
Adjust BobsSon details
BobsSon.Age=2, BobsSon.Purchase.Description=Toy car
Proof of deep copy: If BobsSon is a true clone, then adjusting BobsSon details will not affect Bob:
Bob.Age=30, Bob.Purchase.Description=Lamborghini
Elapsed time: 00:00:04.7795670,30000000
Demo of shallow and deep copy, using structs and value copying:
Create Bob
Bob.Age=30, Bob.Purchase.Description=Lamborghini
Clone Bob >> BobsSon
Adjust BobsSon details:
BobsSon.Age=2, BobsSon.Purchase.Description=Toy car
Proof of deep copy: If BobsSon is a true clone, then adjusting BobsSon details will not affect Bob:
Bob.Age=30, Bob.Purchase.Description=Lamborghini
Elapsed time: 00:00:01.0875454,30000000
Demo of deep copy, using class and serialize/deserialize:
Elapsed time: 00:00:39.9339425,30000000
To understand how to do a deep copy using MemberwiseCopy, here is the demo project:
// Nested MemberwiseClone example.
// Added to demo how to deep copy a reference class.
[Serializable] // Not required if using MemberwiseClone, only used for speed comparison using serialization.
public class Person
{
public Person(int age, string description)
{
this.Age = age;
this.Purchase.Description = description;
}
[Serializable] // Not required if using MemberwiseClone
public class PurchaseType
{
public string Description;
public PurchaseType ShallowCopy()
{
return (PurchaseType)this.MemberwiseClone();
}
}
public PurchaseType Purchase = new PurchaseType();
public int Age;
// Add this if using nested MemberwiseClone.
// This is a class, which is a reference type, so cloning is more difficult.
public Person ShallowCopy()
{
return (Person)this.MemberwiseClone();
}
// Add this if using nested MemberwiseClone.
// This is a class, which is a reference type, so cloning is more difficult.
public Person DeepCopy()
{
// Clone the root ...
Person other = (Person) this.MemberwiseClone();
// ... then clone the nested class.
other.Purchase = this.Purchase.ShallowCopy();
return other;
}
}
// Added to demo how to copy a value struct (this is easy - a deep copy happens by default)
public struct PersonStruct
{
public PersonStruct(int age, string description)
{
this.Age = age;
this.Purchase.Description = description;
}
public struct PurchaseType
{
public string Description;
}
public PurchaseType Purchase;
public int Age;
// This is a struct, which is a value type, so everything is a clone by default.
public PersonStruct ShallowCopy()
{
return (PersonStruct)this;
}
// This is a struct, which is a value type, so everything is a clone by default.
public PersonStruct DeepCopy()
{
return (PersonStruct)this;
}
}
// Added only for a speed comparison.
public class MyDeepCopy
{
public static T DeepCopy(T obj)
{
object result = null;
using (var ms = new MemoryStream())
{
var formatter = new BinaryFormatter();
formatter.Serialize(ms, obj);
ms.Position = 0;
result = (T)formatter.Deserialize(ms);
ms.Close();
}
return (T)result;
}
}
Then, call the demo from main:
void MyMain(string[] args)
{
{
Console.Write("Demo of shallow and deep copy, using classes and MemberwiseCopy:\n");
var Bob = new Person(30, "Lamborghini");
Console.Write(" Create Bob\n");
Console.Write(" Bob.Age={0}, Bob.Purchase.Description={1}\n", Bob.Age, Bob.Purchase.Description);
Console.Write(" Clone Bob >> BobsSon\n");
var BobsSon = Bob.DeepCopy();
Console.Write(" Adjust BobsSon details\n");
BobsSon.Age = 2;
BobsSon.Purchase.Description = "Toy car";
Console.Write(" BobsSon.Age={0}, BobsSon.Purchase.Description={1}\n", BobsSon.Age, BobsSon.Purchase.Description);
Console.Write(" Proof of deep copy: If BobsSon is a true clone, then adjusting BobsSon details will not affect Bob:\n");
Console.Write(" Bob.Age={0}, Bob.Purchase.Description={1}\n", Bob.Age, Bob.Purchase.Description);
Debug.Assert(Bob.Age == 30);
Debug.Assert(Bob.Purchase.Description == "Lamborghini");
var sw = new Stopwatch();
sw.Start();
int total = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < 100000; i++)
{
var n = Bob.DeepCopy();
total += n.Age;
}
Console.Write(" Elapsed time: {0},{1}\n", sw.Elapsed, total);
}
{
Console.Write("Demo of shallow and deep copy, using structs:\n");
var Bob = new PersonStruct(30, "Lamborghini");
Console.Write(" Create Bob\n");
Console.Write(" Bob.Age={0}, Bob.Purchase.Description={1}\n", Bob.Age, Bob.Purchase.Description);
Console.Write(" Clone Bob >> BobsSon\n");
var BobsSon = Bob.DeepCopy();
Console.Write(" Adjust BobsSon details:\n");
BobsSon.Age = 2;
BobsSon.Purchase.Description = "Toy car";
Console.Write(" BobsSon.Age={0}, BobsSon.Purchase.Description={1}\n", BobsSon.Age, BobsSon.Purchase.Description);
Console.Write(" Proof of deep copy: If BobsSon is a true clone, then adjusting BobsSon details will not affect Bob:\n");
Console.Write(" Bob.Age={0}, Bob.Purchase.Description={1}\n", Bob.Age, Bob.Purchase.Description);
Debug.Assert(Bob.Age == 30);
Debug.Assert(Bob.Purchase.Description == "Lamborghini");
var sw = new Stopwatch();
sw.Start();
int total = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < 100000; i++)
{
var n = Bob.DeepCopy();
total += n.Age;
}
Console.Write(" Elapsed time: {0},{1}\n", sw.Elapsed, total);
}
{
Console.Write("Demo of deep copy, using class and serialize/deserialize:\n");
int total = 0;
var sw = new Stopwatch();
sw.Start();
var Bob = new Person(30, "Lamborghini");
for (int i = 0; i < 100000; i++)
{
var BobsSon = MyDeepCopy.DeepCopy(Bob);
total += BobsSon.Age;
}
Console.Write(" Elapsed time: {0},{1}\n", sw.Elapsed, total);
}
Console.ReadKey();
}
Again, note that if you use Nested MemberwiseClone for a deep copy, you have to manually implement a ShallowCopy for each nested level in the class, and a DeepCopy which calls all said ShallowCopy methods to create a complete clone. This is simple: only a few lines in total, see the demo code above.
Note that when it comes to cloning an object, there is is a big difference between a "struct" and a "class":
- If you have a "struct", it's a value type so you can just copy it, and the contents will be cloned.
- If you have a "class", it's a reference type, so if you copy it, all you are doing is copying the pointer to it. To create a true clone, you have to be more creative, and use a method which creates another copy of the original object in memory.
- Cloning objects incorrectly can lead to very difficult-to-pin-down bugs. In production code, I tend to implement a checksum to double check that the object has been cloned properly, and hasn't been corrupted by another reference to it. This checksum can be switched off in Release mode.
- I find this method quite useful: often, you only want to clone parts of the object, not the entire thing. It's also essential for any use case where you are modifying objects, then feeding the modified copies into a queue.
Update
It's probably possible to use reflection to recursively walk through the object graph to do a deep copy. WCF uses this technique to serialize an object, including all of its children. The trick is to annotate all of the child objects with an attribute that makes it discoverable. You might lose some performance benefits, however.
Update
Quote on independent speed test (see comments below):
I've run my own speed test using Neil's serialize/deserialize
extension method, Contango's Nested MemberwiseClone, Alex Burtsev's
reflection-based extension method and AutoMapper, 1 million times
each. Serialize-deserialize was slowest, taking 15.7 seconds. Then
came AutoMapper, taking 10.1 seconds. Much faster was the
reflection-based method which took 2.4 seconds. By far the fastest was
Nested MemberwiseClone, taking 0.1 seconds. Comes down to performance
versus hassle of adding code to each class to clone it. If performance
isn't an issue go with Alex Burtsev's method.
– Simon Tewsi
