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Clone Into

CloneXTo() copies matching members onto a different type or onto an instance you already have — including ExpandoObject graphs.

Same idea, different destination

CloneX() always creates a new instance of the same type. CloneXTo() fills a target you choose: another type, or an existing object.

source.CloneXTo(target);

What happens:

  1. Matching members are copied by name (deep for reference types).
  2. Extra fields on the destination are left alone.
  3. [DoNotClone] on the destination keeps the target’s current value.

Example: POCO → DTO

public class Address {
    public string City { get; set; }
}

public class Customer {
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Password { get; set; }
    public Address Address { get; set; }
}

public class CustomerDto {
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    [DoNotClone] public string Password { get; set; }
    public Address Address { get; set; }
    public string ExtraOnTarget { get; set; }
}

var source = new Customer {
    Id = 1,
    Name = "Ada",
    Password = "secret",
    Address = new Address { City = "Berlin" }
};

var target = new CustomerDto {
    Password = "already-set",
    ExtraOnTarget = "keep-me"
};

source.CloneXTo(target);
// target.Id == 1, target.Name == "Ada"
// target.Address is a deep copy (not the same instance)
// target.Password == "already-set"
// target.ExtraOnTarget == "keep-me"

ExpandoObject → existing DTO

dynamic expando = new ExpandoObject();
expando.Id = 1;
expando.Name = "Ada";
expando.Password = "secret";

var dto = new CustomerDto { Password = "already-set", ExtraOnTarget = "keep-me" };

((ExpandoObject)expando).CloneXTo(dto);

POCO → ExpandoObject

var customer = new Customer {
    Id = 1,
    Name = "Ada",
    Address = new Address { City = "Berlin" }
};

var expando = new ExpandoObject();
customer.CloneXTo(expando);

Collections

Overlapping items are copied; the target keeps its own length and capacity:

var sourceList = new List<int> { 1, 2, 3 };
var targetArray = new int[2];

sourceList.CloneXTo(targetArray);
// targetArray is { 1, 2 }

Dynamic caveat

C# cannot dispatch extension methods on a dynamic variable. Keep the expando in an ExpandoObject variable (or cast it), or call CloneXExtensions.CloneXTo(source, target) directly.

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