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Implementing ICloneable – Deep copies

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The simplest way to create a generic deep copy routine, that is a procedure that can create a true, distinct copy of an object and all its dependent object, is to rely on the serialization features of the .NET framework.

Function CloneObject(ByVal obj As Object) As Object    ' Create a memory stream and a formatter.    Dim ms As New MemoryStream(1000)    Dim bf As New BinaryFormatter()    ' Serialize the object into the stream.    bf.Serialize(ms, obj)    ' Position streem pointer back to first byte.    ms.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin)    ' Deserialize into another object.    CloneObject = bf.Deserialize(ms)    ' Release memory.    ms.Close()End Function

You can use this routine as follows:

Dim ar(100) As Person' Fill the array.' ...' Create a copy of the array AND all the objects it contains.ar = CType(CloneObject(ar), Person())

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