Creating a copy of an existing class object

Question

I have a class which is used to created various items and store them in a static dictionary database. Creating and adding items to the database is working just as intended but I have ran into an issue where I would like to created a copy of the object stored in the dictionary to put into another dictionary but it seems all I am able to do is reference the original object.

This may be silly, it is just something I have been playing around with.

Item Code:

 public class Armour : Item
     {
         #region Declarations
 
         int _ArmourLevel;
         int _ArmourValue;
         ArmourType _ArmourType;
 
         #endregion
 
         #region Properties
 
         public int Level { get { return _ArmourLevel; } }
         public int Defense { get { return _ArmourValue; } }
         public ArmourType Type { get { return _ArmourType; } }
 
         #endregion
 
         #region Armour Methods
 
         public Armour (string name, int buy, float weight, RarityTier rarity, int level, int armour, ArmourType type)
         {
             _ArmourLevel = level;
             _ArmourValue = armour;
             _ArmourType = type;
 
             int id = DB.ArmourDB.Count > 0 ? DB.ArmourDB.Keys.Max() + 1 : 1;
 
             SetDefinition(name, id, false, 1, buy, weight, rarity);
 
             DB.ArmourDB.Add(id, this);
         }
 
         #endregion
     }

I create the item like below:

 armour1 = new Armour("Helm of sight", 185, 11, RarityTier.Rare, 8, 10, ArmourType.Helmet);

I want to create a copy of the object, the only way I can think of is the following below but all it does is reference the object in the dictionary. Using the 'new' keyword causes an error. I'd like newArmour to become its own instance of the object but I do not know how to achieve this.

 Armour newArmour = DB.ArmourDB[1];

I would appreciate any/all help, be it to gain a copy of the object or how to better write such classes ^ ^

Answer 1

There's no built-in Clone() function in C# that could make a deep clone copy of an object.
You can do that manually though. The simplest way is just create a new object and set its fields to the values of the original's:

 public class MyClass
 {
     private int myInt;
     private string myString;

     public int MyInt => myInt;
     public string MyString => myString;
     
     public MyClass(int intArg, string stringArg)
     {
         myInt = intArg;
         myString = stringArg;
     }
     
     public MyClass Clone()
     {
         MyClass clone = new MyClass(myInt, myString);
         return clone;
     }
 }

Usage:

 MyClass mc1 = new MyClass(1, "s");
 MyClass mc2 = mc1.Clone();

In your case it could be:

 public Armour Clone()
 {
     Armour clone = new Armour (name, buy, weight, rarity, _Level, _ArmourValue, _ArmourType);
     return clone;
 }

Usage:

 Armour newArmour = DB.ArmourDB[1].Clone();

Obviously, you'll need to get name, buy, rarity and such before creating the new clone object within the Clone() method.

Answer 2

Answer by Tulula · Mar 18, 2021 at 02:02 PM

@Ermiq Thank you so very much for your help regarding this matter. It was driving me a little mad but thanks to you, I can now clone an item which is exactly what I needed. Thank you ^ ^

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