Getting Started

Install#

dotnet add package CloneBox

<PackageReference Include="CloneBox" Version="*" />

Targets: netstandard2.0, net47, net48, net10.0.

Your first clone#

using CloneBox;

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

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

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

var copy = customer.CloneX();
// copy is a new Customer; copy.Address is a new Address too

That is a real deep clone: nested objects, collections, arrays, dictionaries, and cycles. The copy does not share identity with the source.

Or clone into another object#

public class CustomerDto {
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public Address Address { get; set; }
    public string ExtraOnTarget { get; set; }
}

var dto = new CustomerDto { ExtraOnTarget = "keep-me" };
customer.CloneXTo(dto);
// dto.Id / Name / Address filled; ExtraOnTarget still "keep-me"

Matching members are copied. Members that exist only on the target stay unchanged. [DoNotClone] on the destination is honored.

What CloneBox handles#

• Object graphs with self-references and cycles — no stack overflow
• Lists, arrays (multi-dimensional and non-zero-based) and dictionaries with their runtime key types
• ExpandoObject / DynamicObject, including graphs that mix expandos and real classes
• Inheritance, structs, built-in types, nested collections

Covered by 280+ xUnit tests on net10.0, net48, and net47.

From the makers of ETLBox#

CloneBox is built and maintained by ETLBoxperts GmbH, the company behind ETLBox. We needed a cloner our own data flows could rely on — so we built one and released it under the MIT license.

What’s next?#

• Deep clone — CloneX() in detail
• Clone into — CloneXTo() for DTOs, Expando, and existing instances
• Skip members — [DoNotClone] and predicates
• Settings — visibility, ICloneable, logging
• Benchmarks — how CloneBox compares