AnyClone 1.0.0

AnyClone

A CSharp library that can deep clone any object using only reflection.

No requirements for [Serializable] attributes, supports standard ignore attributes.

Description

I built this library as almost all others I tried on complex objects either didn't work at all, or failed to account for common scenarios. Serialization required too much boiler plate (BinarySerialization, Protobuf, or Json.Net) and fails to account for various designs. Implementing IClonable was too much of a chore and should be unnecessary. Various projects that use expression trees also failed to work, IObservable patterns were difficult to implement on large, already written code base.

Usage

var originalObject = new SomeComplexTypeWithDeepStructure();
var myClonedObject = originalObject.Clone();

Capture Errors

var originalObject = new SomeComplexTypeWithDeepStructure();
// capture errors found with your object where impossible situations occur, and add [IgnoreDataMember] to those properties/fields.

var myClonedObject = originalObject.Clone((ex, path, property, obj) => {
  Console.WriteLine($"Cloning error: {path} {ex.Message}");
  Assert.Fail();
});

Get differences between cloned objects using AnyDiff

// using AnyDiff;
var object1 = new MyComplexObject(1, "A string");
var object1Snapshot = object1.Clone();

var diff = AnyDiff.Diff(object1, object1Snapshot);
Assert.AreEqual(diff.Count, 0);

// change something anywhere in the object tree
object1.Name = "A different string";

diff = AnyDiff.Diff(object1, object1Snapshot);
Assert.AreEqual(diff.Count, 1);

Ignoring Properties/Fields

There are unfortunately a few situations that can't be resolved, such as cloning delegates, events etc. Fortunately, and for most scenarios you don't want these anyways so you can use any of the standard supported attributes to ignore these properties: [IgnoreDataMember], [JsonIgnore], and [NonSerialized] (fields only, just use [IgnoreDataMember] and save yourself the hassle).