DeepCloner .NET Library

The primary difference is how related objects are handled:

• DeepClone: Guarantees that all changes to the cloned object (including nested properties) do not affect the original object.
• ShallowClone: Only copies the top-level object. Nested objects are shared between the original and the clone.

// public class A { public B B; } 
// public class B { public int X; }

var b = new B { X = 1 };
var a = new A { B = b };

// Deep Clone Example
var deepClone = a.DeepClone();
deepClone.B.X = 2;
Console.WriteLine(a.B.X); // Output: 1

// Shallow Clone Example
var shallowClone = a.ShallowClone();
shallowClone.B.X = 2;
Console.WriteLine(a.B.X); // Output: 2

DeepCloner supports the following environments:

• .NET 4.0 or higher
• .NET Standard 1.3 (.NET Core): Note that the .NET Standard implementation only supports the Safe copying variant, which is slightly slower than the standard variant.

Permissions:

• The library prefers Full Trust or Reflection permission (MemberAccess).
• If the environment lacks these, the library automatically switches to a Safe variant which is slightly slower but more secure.
• If you are in a highly restricted environment where even the Safe variant fails, consider using CloneExtensions (which only clones public properties).

You can install the DeepCloner library using the NuGet package manager.

Install-Package DeepCloner

Use the ShallowClone() extension method to create a copy of the object itself, but without cloning the objects it references. This is faster than a deep clone but does not guarantee that changes to nested objects won't affect the original.

var clone = new { Id = 1, Name = "222" }.ShallowClone();

Use the DeepClone() extension method to create a complete copy of an object, including all objects in its graph. This ensures that changes to the cloned object do not affect the original.

Note: DeepCloner copies objects by their internal structure without calling any constructors or methods. It is not recommended to clone objects bound to native resources or pointers.

var clone = new { Id = 1, Name = "222" }.DeepClone();

You can copy the fields of a source object into an existing instance using DeepCloneTo or ShallowCloneTo.

Requirements:

• The target object must be a class (not a struct).
• The target class must be a real descendant of the source class (or the same type). Casting a derived object to a base type and then attempting to clone into a different derived type will throw a runtime exception.

public class Derived : BaseClass
{
    public Derived(BaseClass parent)
    {
        parent.DeepCloneTo(this); // 'this' now has every field from 'parent'
    }
}