How do I clone a generic list in C#?

Question

I have a generic list of objects in C#, and wish to clone the list. The items within the list are cloneable, but there doesn\'t seem to be an option to do list.Clone()

Answer 1

For a deep copy, ICloneable is the correct solution, but here's a similar approach to ICloneable using the constructor instead of the ICloneable interface.

public class Student
{
  public Student(Student student)
  {
    FirstName = student.FirstName;
    LastName = student.LastName;
  }

  public string FirstName { get; set; }
  public string LastName { get; set; }
}

// wherever you have the list
List students;

// and then where you want to make a copy
List copy = students.Select(s => new Student(s)).ToList();

you'll need the following library where you make the copy

using System.Linq

you could also use a for loop instead of System.Linq, but Linq makes it concise and clean. Likewise you could do as other answers have suggested and make extension methods, etc., but none of that is necessary.