Fastest Way to do Shallow Copy in C#

Question

I wonder what is the fastest way to do shallow copying in C#? I only know there are 2 ways to do shallow copy:

1. MemberwiseClone
2. Copy each field one by

Answer 1

This is a way to do it using dynamic IL generation. I found it somewhere online:

public static class Cloner
{
    static Dictionary _cachedIL = new Dictionary();

    public static T Clone(T myObject)
    {
        Delegate myExec = null;

        if (!_cachedIL.TryGetValue(typeof(T), out myExec))
        {
            var dymMethod = new DynamicMethod("DoClone", typeof(T), new Type[] { typeof(T) }, true);
            var cInfo = myObject.GetType().GetConstructor(new Type[] { });

            var generator = dymMethod.GetILGenerator();

            var lbf = generator.DeclareLocal(typeof(T));

            generator.Emit(OpCodes.Newobj, cInfo);
            generator.Emit(OpCodes.Stloc_0);

            foreach (var field in myObject.GetType().GetFields(BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.NonPublic))
            {
                // Load the new object on the eval stack... (currently 1 item on eval stack)
                generator.Emit(OpCodes.Ldloc_0);
                // Load initial object (parameter)          (currently 2 items on eval stack)
                generator.Emit(OpCodes.Ldarg_0);
                // Replace value by field value             (still currently 2 items on eval stack)
                generator.Emit(OpCodes.Ldfld, field);
                // Store the value of the top on the eval stack into the object underneath that value on the value stack.
                //  (0 items on eval stack)
                generator.Emit(OpCodes.Stfld, field);
            }

            // Load new constructed obj on eval stack -> 1 item on stack
            generator.Emit(OpCodes.Ldloc_0);
            // Return constructed object.   --> 0 items on stack
            generator.Emit(OpCodes.Ret);

            myExec = dymMethod.CreateDelegate(typeof(Func));

            _cachedIL.Add(typeof(T), myExec);
        }

        return ((Func)myExec)(myObject);
    }
}