IDeepCloneable 0.0.10

IDeepCloneable

Automatic implementation of the IDeepCloneable<T> interface via source generators. For library authors.

Overview

Provides automatic generation of the DeepClone() method and IDeepCloneable<T> implementation for partial types marked with [DeepCloneable].

Benefits

While there are many similar libraries available, this library's key feature is that it generates the DeepClone() method as an implementation of the IDeepCloneable<T> interface.

By doing this:

• Library authors can use DeepClone() without reflection (NativeAOT friendly)
• Users are relieved of the burden of manual implementation

// 3rd-party library side
public void RegisterCloneMethod<T>()
{
    Func<T, T> cloneFunc = null;

    if(typeof(IDeepCloneable<T>).IsAssignableFrom(typeof(T))) {
        cloneFunc = obj => obj.DeepClone();
    }
    else {
        // fallback implementation
    }
}

// user side
[DeepCloneable]
public partial class MyModel { /* ... */ }

How to use

Basic Usage

Install the NuGet package IDeepCloneable to your project.

dotnet add package IDeepCloneable

Then mark a partial type with the [DeepCloneable] attribute.

using IDeepCloneable;

[DeepCloneable]
public partial class Person
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public int Age { get; set; }
}

That's it! The DeepClone() method will be automatically generated and the generated partial type will implement IDeepCloneable<Person>.

// generated code (sample)
partial class Person : IDeepCloneable<Person>
{
    public Person DeepClone()
    {
        return new Person
        {
            Name = this.Name,
            Age = this.Age,
        };
    }
}

And you can use it like this:

var person1 = new Person { Name = "Alice", Age = 30 };
var person2 = person1.DeepClone();
person2.ShouldNotBeSameAs(person1);

Customize

As you can see from the generated code, you can simply implement the IDeepCloneable<T>.DeepClone() method yourself.

using IDeepCloneable;

public class Person : IDeepCloneable<Person>
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public int Age { get; set; }

    public Person DeepClone()
    {
        // your custom implementation
    }
}

Library Structure

This consists of two libraries.

IDeepCloneable

This is the library that defines the IDeepCloneable<T> interface and the [DeepCloneable] marker attribute.

namespace IDeepCloneable;
public sealed class DeepCloneableAttribute : Attribute;
public interface IDeepCloneable<T>
{
    T DeepClone();
}

Additionally, it will automatically reference the IDeepCloneable.Generator.

IDeepCloneable.Generator

This is the source generator library that automatically generates the IDeepCloneable<T>.DeepClone() method. There is no need to directly reference this library.