System.ICloneable Interface

public interface ICloneable

Assembly

mscorlib

Library

BCL

Summary

Implemented by classes that require control over the way in which copies of instances are constructed.

Description

[Note: ICloneable contains the System.ICloneable.Clone method. The consumer of an object should call this method when a copy of the object is needed.]

See Also

System Namespace

Members

ICloneable Methods

ICloneable.Clone Method

A Object of the same type as the current instance, containing copies of the non-static members of the current instance.

Description

The exact behavior of this method is unspecified. The intent of the method is to provide a mechanism that constructs instances that are copies of the current instance, without regard for class-specific definitions of the term "copy".

[Note: Use the System.Object.MemberwiseClone method to create a shallow copy of an object. For more information, see System.Object.MemberwiseClone . ]

[Behaviors: This method is required to return an instance of the same type as the current instance. ]

[Overrides: Implement this method to provide class-specific copying behavior. ]

[Usage: Use the System.ICloneable.Clone method to obtain a copy of the current instance. ]

Example

The following example shows an implementation of System.ICloneable.Clone that uses the System.Object.MemberwiseClone method to create a copy of the current instance.

using System;
class MyClass :ICloneable {
    public int myField;
    public MyClass() {
        myField = 0;
    }
    public MyClass(int value) {
        myField = value;
    }
    public object Clone() {
        return this.MemberwiseClone();
    }
}
public class TestMyClass {
    public static void Main() {
        MyClass my1 = new MyClass(44);
        MyClass my2 = (MyClass) my1.Clone();
        Console.WriteLine("my1 {0} my2 {1}",my1.myField, my2.myField);
        my2.myField = 22;
        Console.WriteLine("my1 {0} my2 {1}",my1.myField, my2.myField);
    }
}

The output is

my1 44 my2 44

my1 44 my2 22

See Also

System.ICloneable Interface, System Namespace