What's alternative to angular.copy in Angular

Question

How can I copy an object and lose its reference in Angular?

With AngularJS, I can use angular.copy(object), but I\'m getting some error using that in An

Answer 1

As others have already pointed out, using lodash or underscore is probably the best solution. But if you do not need those libraries for anything else, you can probably use something like this:

  function deepClone(obj) {

    // return value is input is not an Object or Array.
    if (typeof(obj) !== 'object' || obj === null) {
      return obj;    
    }

    let clone;

    if(Array.isArray(obj)) {
      clone = obj.slice();  // unlink Array reference.
    } else {
      clone = Object.assign({}, obj); // Unlink Object reference.
    }

    let keys = Object.keys(clone);

    for (let i=0; i<keys.length; i++) {
      clone[keys[i]] = deepClone(clone[keys[i]]); // recursively unlink reference to nested objects.
    }

    return clone; // return unlinked clone.

  }

That's what we decided to do.

Answer 2

I have created a service to use with Angular 5 or higher, it uses the angular.copy() the base of angularjs, it works well for me. Additionally, there are other functions like isUndefined, etc. I hope it helps. Like any optimization, it would be nice to know. regards

import { Injectable } from '@angular/core';

@Injectable({providedIn: 'root'})
export class AngularService {

  private TYPED_ARRAY_REGEXP = /^\[object (?:Uint8|Uint8Clamped|Uint16|Uint32|Int8|Int16|Int32|Float32|Float64)Array\]$/;
  private stackSource = [];
  private stackDest = [];

  constructor() { }

  public isNumber(value: any): boolean {
    if ( typeof value === 'number' ) { return true; }
    else { return false; }
  }

  public isTypedArray(value: any) {
    return value && this.isNumber(value.length) && this.TYPED_ARRAY_REGEXP.test(toString.call(value));
  }

  public isArrayBuffer(obj: any) {
    return toString.call(obj) === '[object ArrayBuffer]';
  }

  public isUndefined(value: any) {return typeof value === 'undefined'; }

  public isObject(value: any) {  return value !== null && typeof value === 'object'; }

  public isBlankObject(value: any) {
    return value !== null && typeof value === 'object' && !Object.getPrototypeOf(value);
  }

  public isFunction(value: any) { return typeof value === 'function'; }

  public setHashKey(obj: any, h: any) {
    if (h) { obj.$$hashKey = h; }
    else { delete obj.$$hashKey; }
  }

  private isWindow(obj: any) { return obj && obj.window === obj; }

  private isScope(obj: any) { return obj && obj.$evalAsync && obj.$watch; }


  private copyRecurse(source: any, destination: any) {

    const h = destination.$$hashKey;

    if (Array.isArray(source)) {
      for (let i = 0, ii = source.length; i < ii; i++) {
        destination.push(this.copyElement(source[i]));
      }
    } else if (this.isBlankObject(source)) {
      for (const key of Object.keys(source)) {
        destination[key] = this.copyElement(source[key]);
      }
    } else if (source && typeof source.hasOwnProperty === 'function') {
      for (const key of Object.keys(source)) {
        destination[key] = this.copyElement(source[key]);
      }
    } else {
      for (const key of Object.keys(source)) {
        destination[key] = this.copyElement(source[key]);
      }
    }
    this.setHashKey(destination, h);
    return destination;
  }

  private copyElement(source: any) {

    if (!this.isObject(source)) {
      return source;
    }

    const index = this.stackSource.indexOf(source);

    if (index !== -1) {
      return this.stackDest[index];
    }

    if (this.isWindow(source) || this.isScope(source)) {
      throw console.log('Cant copy! Making copies of Window or Scope instances is not supported.');
    }

    let needsRecurse = false;
    let destination = this.copyType(source);

    if (destination === undefined) {
      destination = Array.isArray(source) ? [] : Object.create(Object.getPrototypeOf(source));
      needsRecurse = true;
    }

    this.stackSource.push(source);
    this.stackDest.push(destination);

    return needsRecurse
      ? this.copyRecurse(source, destination)
      : destination;
  }

  private copyType = (source: any) => {

    switch (toString.call(source)) {
      case '[object Int8Array]':
      case '[object Int16Array]':
      case '[object Int32Array]':
      case '[object Float32Array]':
      case '[object Float64Array]':
      case '[object Uint8Array]':
      case '[object Uint8ClampedArray]':
      case '[object Uint16Array]':
      case '[object Uint32Array]':
        return new source.constructor(this.copyElement(source.buffer), source.byteOffset, source.length);

      case '[object ArrayBuffer]':
        if (!source.slice) {
          const copied = new ArrayBuffer(source.byteLength);
          new Uint8Array(copied).set(new Uint8Array(source));
          return copied;
        }
        return source.slice(0);

      case '[object Boolean]':
      case '[object Number]':
      case '[object String]':
      case '[object Date]':
        return new source.constructor(source.valueOf());

      case '[object RegExp]':
        const re = new RegExp(source.source, source.toString().match(/[^\/]*$/)[0]);
        re.lastIndex = source.lastIndex;
        return re;

      case '[object Blob]':
        return new source.constructor([source], {type: source.type});
    }

    if (this.isFunction(source.cloneNode)) {
      return source.cloneNode(true);
    }
  }

  public copy(source: any, destination?: any) {

    if (destination) {
      if (this.isTypedArray(destination) || this.isArrayBuffer(destination)) {
        throw console.log('Cant copy! TypedArray destination cannot be mutated.');
      }
      if (source === destination) {
        throw console.log('Cant copy! Source and destination are identical.');
      }

      if (Array.isArray(destination)) {
        destination.length = 0;
      } else {
        destination.forEach((value: any, key: any) => {
          if (key !== '$$hashKey') {
            delete destination[key];
          }
        });
      }

      this.stackSource.push(source);
      this.stackDest.push(destination);
      return this.copyRecurse(source, destination);
    }

    return this.copyElement(source);
  }
}

Answer 3

Had the same Issue, and didn't wanna use any plugins just for deep cloning:

static deepClone(object): any {
        const cloneObj = (<any>object.constructor());
        const attributes = Object.keys(object);
        for (const attribute of attributes) {
            const property = object[attribute];

            if (typeof property === 'object') {
                cloneObj[attribute] = this.deepClone(property);
            } else {
                cloneObj[attribute] = property;
            }
        }
        return cloneObj;
    }

Credits: I made this function more readable, please check the exceptions to its functionality below