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

In fact, MemberwiseClone is usually much better than others, especially for complex type.

The reason is that:if you manual create a copy, it must call one of the type's constructor, but use memberwise clone, I guess it just copy a block of memory. for those types has very expensive construct actions, memberwise clone is absolutely the best way.

Onece i wrote such type: {string A = Guid.NewGuid().ToString()}, I found memberwise clone is muct faster than create a new instance and manual assign members.

The code below's result:

Manual Copy:00:00:00.0017099

MemberwiseClone:00:00:00.0009911

namespace MoeCard.TestConsole
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Program p = new Program() { AAA = Guid.NewGuid().ToString(), BBB = 123 };
            Stopwatch sw = Stopwatch.StartNew();
            for (int i = 0; i < 10000; i++)
            {
                p.Copy1();
            }
            sw.Stop();
            Console.WriteLine("Manual Copy:" + sw.Elapsed);

            sw.Restart();
            for (int i = 0; i < 10000; i++)
            {
                p.Copy2();
            }
            sw.Stop();
            Console.WriteLine("MemberwiseClone:" + sw.Elapsed);
            Console.ReadLine();
        }

        public string AAA;

        public int BBB;

        public Class1 CCC = new Class1();

        public Program Copy1()
        {
            return new Program() { AAA = AAA, BBB = BBB, CCC = CCC };
        }
        public Program Copy2()
        {
            return this.MemberwiseClone() as Program;
        }

        public class Class1
        {
            public DateTime Date = DateTime.Now;
        }
    }

}

finally, I provide my code here:

    #region 数据克隆
    /// <summary>
    /// 依据不同类型所存储的克隆句柄集合
    /// </summary>
    private static readonly Dictionary<Type, Func<object, object>> CloneHandlers = new Dictionary<Type, Func<object, object>>();

    /// <summary>
    /// 根据指定的实例,克隆一份新的实例
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="source">待克隆的实例</param>
    /// <returns>被克隆的新的实例</returns>
    public static object CloneInstance(object source)
    {
        if (source == null)
        {
            return null;
        }
        Func<object, object> handler = TryGetOrAdd(CloneHandlers, source.GetType(), CreateCloneHandler);
        return handler(source);
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// 根据指定的类型,创建对应的克隆句柄
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="type">数据类型</param>
    /// <returns>数据克隆句柄</returns>
    private static Func<object, object> CreateCloneHandler(Type type)
    {
        return Delegate.CreateDelegate(typeof(Func<object, object>), new Func<object, object>(CloneAs<object>).Method.GetGenericMethodDefinition().MakeGenericMethod(type)) as Func<object, object>;
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// 克隆一个类
    /// </summary>
    /// <typeparam name="TValue"></typeparam>
    /// <param name="value"></param>
    /// <returns></returns>
    private static object CloneAs<TValue>(object value)
    {
        return Copier<TValue>.Clone((TValue)value);
    }
    /// <summary>
    /// 生成一份指定数据的克隆体
    /// </summary>
    /// <typeparam name="TValue">数据的类型</typeparam>
    /// <param name="value">需要克隆的值</param>
    /// <returns>克隆后的数据</returns>
    public static TValue Clone<TValue>(TValue value)
    {
        if (value == null)
        {
            return value;
        }
        return Copier<TValue>.Clone(value);
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// 辅助类,完成数据克隆
    /// </summary>
    /// <typeparam name="TValue">数据类型</typeparam>
    private static class Copier<TValue>
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// 用于克隆的句柄
        /// </summary>
        internal static readonly Func<TValue, TValue> Clone;

        /// <summary>
        /// 初始化
        /// </summary>
        static Copier()
        {
            MethodFactory<Func<TValue, TValue>> method = MethodFactory.Create<Func<TValue, TValue>>();
            Type type = typeof(TValue);
            if (type == typeof(object))
            {
                method.LoadArg(0).Return();
                return;
            }
            switch (Type.GetTypeCode(type))
            {
                case TypeCode.Object:
                    if (type.IsClass)
                    {
                        method.LoadArg(0).Call(Reflector.GetMethod(typeof(object), "MemberwiseClone")).Cast(typeof(object), typeof(TValue)).Return();
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        method.LoadArg(0).Return();
                    }
                    break;
                default:
                    method.LoadArg(0).Return();
                    break;
            }
            Clone = method.Delegation;
        }

    }
    #endregion

Answer 2

MemberwiseClone requires less maintenance. I don't know if having default property values helps any, maybe if could ignore items with default values.