Copy Entity Framework Object

Question

I have a EF4.1 class X and I want to make copy of that plus all its child records. X.Y and X.Y.Z

Now if I do the following it returns error.

The property \'X.ID\

Answer 1

C is not a copy it is the record, the error you are getting is because you are trying to update it's primary key, even if you weren't it still wouldn't work. You need to make a new X entity and then copy the values from the properties of the retrieved entity and then insert the new entity.

Answer 2

In entity-framework-5, this is insanely easy with the DbExtensions.AsNotracking().

Returns a new query where the entities returned will not be cached in the DbContext or ObjectContext.

This appears to be the case for all objects in the object graph.

You just have to really understand your graph and what you do and don't want inserted/duplicated into the DB.

Lets assume we have objects like:

public class Person
{
  public int ID { get; set; }
  public string Name { get; set; }
  public virtual ICollection<Address> Addresses { get; set; }
}

public class Address
{
  public int ID { get; set; }
  public AddressLine { get; set; }
  public int StateID { get; set; }

  public ICollection<State> { get; set; }
}

So in order to Duplicate a person, I need to duplicate the addresses, but I don't want to duplicate the States.

var person = this._context.Persons
  .Include(i => i.Addresses)
  .AsNoTracking()
  .First();

// if this is a Guid, just do Guid.NewGuid();
// setting IDs to zero(0) assume the database is using an Identity Column
person.ID = 0;

foreach (var address in person.Addresses)
{
  address.ID = 0;
}

this._context.Persons.Add(person);
this._context.SaveChanges();

If you then wanted to then reuse those same objects again to insert a third duplicate, you'd either run the query again (with AsNoTracking()) or detach the objects (example):

dbContext.Entry(person).State = EntityState.Detached;
person.ID = 0;
foreach (var address in person.Addresses)
{
  dbContext.Entry(address).State = EntityState.Detached;
  address.ID = 0;
}

this._context.Persons.Add(person);
this._context.SaveChanges();

Answer 3

I use Newtonsoft.Json, and this awesome function.

    private static T CloneJson<T>(T source)
    {
        return ReferenceEquals(source, null) ? default(T) : JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<T>(JsonConvert.SerializeObject(source));
    }

Answer 4

You need to make correct deep copy of the whole entity graph - the best way is to serialize the original entity graph to memory stream and deserialize it to a new instance. Your entity must be serializable. It is often used with DataContractSerializer but you can use binary serialization as well.

Answer 5

Not sure if it works in 4.1, from http://www.codeproject.com/Tips/474296/Clone-an-Entity-in-Entity-Framework-4:

public static T CopyEntity<T>(MyContext ctx, T entity, bool copyKeys = false) where T : EntityObject
{
    T clone = ctx.CreateObject<T>();
    PropertyInfo[] pis = entity.GetType().GetProperties();

    foreach (PropertyInfo pi in pis)
    {
        EdmScalarPropertyAttribute[] attrs = (EdmScalarPropertyAttribute[])pi.GetCustomAttributes(typeof(EdmScalarPropertyAttribute), false);

        foreach (EdmScalarPropertyAttribute attr in attrs)
        {
            if (!copyKeys && attr.EntityKeyProperty)
                continue;

            pi.SetValue(clone, pi.GetValue(entity, null), null);
        }
    }

    return clone;
}

You can copy related entites to your cloned object now too; say you had an entity: Customer, which had the Navigation Property: Orders. You could then copy the Customer and their Orders using the above method by:

Customer newCustomer = CopyEntity(myObjectContext, myCustomer, false);

foreach(Order order in myCustomer.Orders)
{
    Order newOrder = CopyEntity(myObjectContext, order, true);
    newCustomer.Orders.Add(newOrder);
}