Is there a fast way to transfer all the variables of one identical object into another in C#?

Question

This is probably a simple question. Suppose I have a object called Users and it contains a lot of protected variables.

Inside that Users class I have a method that creates a temporary Users object, does something with it, and if successful, transfers all the variables from the temp Users object into the one I have.

Is there some fast way to transfer all the variables from one Users object into another Users object without doing this using C#?

this.FirstName = temp.FirstName;
this.LastName = temp.LastName;
........75 variables later......
this.FavoriteColor = temp.FavoriteColor

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 16 '08 at 13:08

3

A better approach is to implement the IClonable interface. But you'll find it doesn't save you a lot of work.

answered Nov 16 '08 at 13:08

Seiti

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score 3 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:18

3

You should check out cloning in C#.

Deep cloning objects

edited May 23 '17 at 12:18

Community

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answered Nov 16 '08 at 13:09

Patrik Svensson

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score 1 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 16 '08 at 14:43

1

I think serializing and then deserializing an object will create a new object instance. This should be identical to the former object.

answered Nov 16 '08 at 14:43

Rune Grimstad

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 16 '08 at 13:15

0

A better solution might be to move whatever this method is outside of your class, and then just assign the temp user object to your main user object reference like so:

_User = tmpUser;

sparing you the 75 lines of code. Whenever I have a class creating an instance of itself inside one of its own methods, I always like to blink a couple of times and make sure I really need to be doing that.

answered Nov 16 '08 at 13:15

MusiGenesis

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I didn't know it was bad practice. How about if I call a DataReader with a GetValue()? – danmine Nov 16 '08 at 13:43
@MusiGenesis: Factory methods are pretty standard though, and have many advantages over public constructors. – Jon Skeet Nov 16 '08 at 13:50
@Jon: does that sound like what's going on here? – MusiGenesis Nov 16 '08 at 13:55
@Danmine: can you post more of your method? I'd be interested in knowing what you're trying to do there. – MusiGenesis Nov 16 '08 at 14:03

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 14 '11 at 13:03

There's always the reflection option. Something substantially similar to this:

public static void Copy(object source, object target)
    {
        foreach (System.Reflection.PropertyInfo pi in source.GetType().GetProperties())
        {
            System.Reflection.PropertyInfo tpi = target.GetType().GetProperty(pi.Name);
            if (tpi != null && tpi.PropertyType.IsAssignableFrom(pi.PropertyType))
            {
                tpi.SetValue(target, pi.GetValue(source, null), null);
            }

        }
    }

Doesn't require the source and the target to have any relation what-so-ever, just a name and an IsAssignable check. It has the interesting side effects if you're using reference types anywhere, but for the kind of situation you just described, this isn't a bad option to explore.

class sourceTester
{
    public bool Hello { get; set; }
    public string World { get; set; }
    public int Foo { get; set; }
    public List<object> Bar { get; set; }
}

class targetTester
{
    public int Hello {get; set;}
    public string World { get; set; }
    public double Foo { get; set; }
    public List<object> Bar { get; set; }
}

static void Main(string[] args)
    {


        sourceTester src = new sourceTester { 
            Hello = true, 
            World = "Testing",
            Foo = 123,
            Bar = new List<object>()
        };

        targetTester tgt = new targetTester();

        Copy(src, tgt);

        //Immediate Window shows the following:
        //tgt.Hello
        //0
        //tgt.World
        //"Testing"
        //tgt.Foo
        //0.0
        //tgt.Bar
        //Count = 0
        //src.Bar.GetHashCode()
        //59129387
        //tgt.Bar.GetHashCode()
        //59129387
    }

Is there a fast way to transfer all the variables of one identical object into another in C#?

5 Answers5