Whereas one approach is to implement the ICloneable
interface (described here, so I won't regurgitate), here's a nice deep clone object copier I found on The Code Project a while ago and incorporated it into our code.
As mentioned elsewhere, it requires your objects to be serializable.
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Runtime.Serialization;
using System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary;
/// <summary>
/// Reference Article http://www.codeproject.com/KB/tips/SerializedObjectCloner.aspx
/// Provides a method for performing a deep copy of an object.
/// Binary Serialization is used to perform the copy.
/// </summary>
public static class ObjectCopier
{
/// <summary>
/// Perform a deep copy of the object via serialization.
/// </summary>
/// <typeparam name="T">The type of object being copied.</typeparam>
/// <param name="source">The object instance to copy.</param>
/// <returns>A deep copy of the object.</returns>
public static T Clone<T>(T source)
{
if (!typeof(T).IsSerializable)
{
throw new ArgumentException("The type must be serializable.", nameof(source));
}
// Don't serialize a null object, simply return the default for that object
if (ReferenceEquals(source, null)) return default;
using var Stream stream = new MemoryStream();
IFormatter formatter = new BinaryFormatter();
formatter.Serialize(stream, source);
stream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
return (T)formatter.Deserialize(stream);
}
}
The idea is that it serializes your object and then deserializes it into a fresh object. The benefit is that you don't have to concern yourself about cloning everything when an object gets too complex.
In case of you prefer to use the new extension methods of C# 3.0, change the method to have the following signature:
public static T Clone<T>(this T source)
{
// ...
}
Now the method call simply becomes objectBeingCloned.Clone();
.
EDIT (January 10 2015) Thought I'd revisit this, to mention I recently started using (Newtonsoft) Json to do this, it should be lighter, and avoids the overhead of [Serializable] tags. (NB @atconway has pointed out in the comments that private members are not cloned using the JSON method)
/// <summary>
/// Perform a deep Copy of the object, using Json as a serialization method. NOTE: Private members are not cloned using this method.
/// </summary>
/// <typeparam name="T">The type of object being copied.</typeparam>
/// <param name="source">The object instance to copy.</param>
/// <returns>The copied object.</returns>
public static T CloneJson<T>(this T source)
{
// Don't serialize a null object, simply return the default for that object
if (ReferenceEquals(source, null)) return default;
// initialize inner objects individually
// for example in default constructor some list property initialized with some values,
// but in 'source' these items are cleaned -
// without ObjectCreationHandling.Replace default constructor values will be added to result
var deserializeSettings = new JsonSerializerSettings {ObjectCreationHandling = ObjectCreationHandling.Replace};
return JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<T>(JsonConvert.SerializeObject(source), deserializeSettings);
}
If you're using .NET 3.5 you can do this in a one-liner with LINQ:
int count = source.Count(f => f == '/');
If you don't want to use LINQ you can do it with:
int count = source.Split('/').Length - 1;
You might be surprised to learn that your original technique seems to be about 30% faster than either of these! I've just done a quick benchmark with "/once/upon/a/time/" and the results are as follows:
Your original = 12s
source.Count = 19s
source.Split = 17s
foreach (from bobwienholt's answer) = 10s
(The times are for 50,000,000 iterations so you're unlikely to notice much difference in the real world.)
Best Answer
One possible way would be:
However you currently have no way to break out of your loop. I would recommend having
tryMethod
return abool
and change it to: