#143 – An Example of Implementing ICloneable for Deep Copies

Here’s an example of implementing ICloneable in two custom classes so that you can use the Clone method to do a deep copy.

To do a deep copy of the Person class, we need to copy its members that are value types and then create a new instance of Address by calling its Clone method.

        public class Person : ICloneable
        {
            public string LastName { get; set; }
            public string FirstName { get; set; }
            public Address PersonAddress { get; set; }

            public object Clone()
            {
                Person newPerson = (Person)this.MemberwiseClone();
                newPerson.PersonAddress = (Address)this.PersonAddress.Clone();

                return newPerson;
            }
        }

The Address class uses MemberwiseClone to make a copy of itself.

        public class Address : ICloneable
        {
            public int HouseNumber { get; set; }
            public string StreetName { get; set; }

            public object Clone()
            {
                return this.MemberwiseClone();
            }
        }

Cloning a Person:

            Person herClone = (Person)emilyBronte.Clone();