Question

I have the following class that I would like to do a deep copy on.

public class KeyInfo
{
  public KeyInfo(IKeySetup keySetup, IKeyData data)
  {
    KeySetup = keySetup;
    Data = data;
  }

  public IKeySetup KeySetup { get; set; }
  public IKeyData Data { get; set; }

  public KeyInfo DeepCopy()
  {
    var keyInfo = (KeyInfo) this.MemberwiseClone();
    return keyInfo;
  }
}

How can I copy the interfaces? Do I have to implement ICloneable for the interfaces and then have every class with one of those interfaces implement Clone()? Is there a way to avoid each class having to implement such a function?

Answer 1

Since there is no built in way of doing deep copy of an object you must provide your own to be able to do so.

Forcing implementer of IKeySetup/IKeyData to have DeepCopy by including it in interface may be good idea. Requiring ICloneable could be another approach – either compile time (by deriving your IKeySetup/IKeyData from ICloneable) or run-time by trhowing if object does not support ICloneable.