Shallow vs Deep copy

[Guest]

I have several Data Structures, say "mystruct" which contain arrays of bytes,
other structures, etc. I then dimension a variable (var1) as "mystruct" and
set the various elements var1 to data. I then dimension another variable
(var1save) as "mystruct" and set var1save = var1 with the intent of changing
var1 data elements and subsequently reasigning var1 back to it's original
values of var1save.

VB.Net makes only a shallow copy of var1 in var1save for anything other than
a simple varable type, i.e., only references for any arrays in the structure
are copied to var1save. Thus, everytime I change a var1 array variable,
var1save also reflects the new value thus negating the intent of saving var1
for future reinstatment.

Currently I have to copy each sub-element of var1 into var1save individually
in order to make a deep copy.

Is there any way to do a deep copy on objects other than breaking them down
into their simple elements and copying each one? This is very annoying to
have to write several lines of code to just copy one variable object to
another of the same type..

 

[Hal Rosser]

I think you're gonna have to write some code

I have several Data Structures, say "mystruct" which contain arrays of bytes,
other structures, etc. I then dimension a variable (var1) as "mystruct" and
set the various elements var1 to data. I then dimension another variable
(var1save) as "mystruct" and set var1save = var1 with the intent of changing
var1 data elements and subsequently reasigning var1 back to it's original
values of var1save.

VB.Net makes only a shallow copy of var1 in var1save for anything other than
a simple varable type, i.e., only references for any arrays in the structure
are copied to var1save. Thus, everytime I change a var1 array variable,
var1save also reflects the new value thus negating the intent of saving var1
for future reinstatment.

Currently I have to copy each sub-element of var1 into var1save individually
in order to make a deep copy.

Is there any way to do a deep copy on objects other than breaking them down
into their simple elements and copying each one? This is very annoying to
have to write several lines of code to just copy one variable object to
another of the same type..

 

[Guest]

Thanks for reply..that's the same conclusion I've come to. It would be nice
if Microsoft would include a .copyToByVal method with the 2005 issue.

 

[Jay B. Harlow [MVP - Outlook]]

Dennis,
If you need a Deep Copy I would implement IClonable interface on your
structure, where the implemented Clone method does the actually deep copy.

Then when you needed to Deep Copy I would call the Clone method. You can
implement Clone such that it is type safe.

Something like:

Public Structure MyStruct
Implements ICloneable

Private bytes() As Byte

Public Function Clone() As MyStruct
Dim newMyStruct As MyStruct
newMyStruct.bytes = DirectCast(bytes.Clone, Byte())
Return newMyStruct
End Function

Private Function ICloneable_Clone() As Object Implements
ICloneable.Clone
Return Me.Clone
End Function

End Structure

Dim var1 As MyStruct
Dim var1save As MyStruct
va1save = var1.Clone()

Hope this helps
Jay

 

[Guest]

Thanks. That will work. I didn't realize you could use the implementation
for structures. I still wish that M'sofe would include a .copytoByVal method
for their objects. Thanks again.