What is the most efficient way to deep clone an object in JavaScript?

Question

What is the most efficient way to clone a JavaScript object? I've seen obj = eval(uneval(o)); being used, but that's non-standard and only supported by Firefox.

I've done things like obj = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(o)); but question the efficiency.

I've also seen recursive copying functions with various flaws.
I'm surprised no canonical solution exists.

Answer 1

Native deep cloning

There's now a JS standard called "structured cloning", that works experimentally in Node 11 and later, will land in browsers, and which has polyfills for existing systems.

structuredClone(value)

If needed, loading the polyfill first:

import structuredClone from '@ungap/structured-clone';

See this answer for more details.

Older answers

Fast cloning with data loss - JSON.parse/stringify

If you do not use Dates, functions, undefined, Infinity, RegExps, Maps, Sets, Blobs, FileLists, ImageDatas, sparse Arrays, Typed Arrays or other complex types within your object, a very simple one liner to deep clone an object is:

JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(object))

const a = {
  string: 'string',
  number: 123,
  bool: false,
  nul: null,
  date: new Date(),  // stringified
  undef: undefined,  // lost
  inf: Infinity,  // forced to 'null'
  re: /.*/,  // lost
}
console.log(a);
console.log(typeof a.date);  // Date object
const clone = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(a));
console.log(clone);
console.log(typeof clone.date);  // result of .toISOString()

See Corban's answer for benchmarks.

Reliable cloning using a library

Since cloning objects is not trivial (complex types, circular references, function etc.), most major libraries provide function to clone objects. Don't reinvent the wheel - if you're already using a library, check if it has an object cloning function. For example,

• lodash - cloneDeep; can be imported separately via the lodash.clonedeep module and is probably your best choice if you're not already using a library that provides a deep cloning function
• AngularJS - angular.copy
• jQuery - jQuery.extend(true, { }, oldObject); .clone() only clones DOM elements
• just library - just-clone; Part of a library of zero-dependency npm modules that do just do one thing. Guilt-free utilities for every occasion.

Answer 2

Checkout this benchmark: http://jsben.ch/#/bWfk9

In my previous tests where speed was a main concern I found

JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(obj))

to be the slowest way to deep clone an object (it is slower than jQuery.extend with deep flag set true by 10-20%).

jQuery.extend is pretty fast when the deep flag is set to false (shallow clone). It is a good option, because it includes some extra logic for type validation and doesn't copy over undefined properties, etc., but this will also slow you down a little.

If you know the structure of the objects you are trying to clone or can avoid deep nested arrays you can write a simple for (var i in obj) loop to clone your object while checking hasOwnProperty and it will be much much faster than jQuery.

Lastly if you are attempting to clone a known object structure in a hot loop you can get MUCH MUCH MORE PERFORMANCE by simply in-lining the clone procedure and manually constructing the object.

JavaScript trace engines suck at optimizing for..in loops and checking hasOwnProperty will slow you down as well. Manual clone when speed is an absolute must.

var clonedObject = {
  knownProp: obj.knownProp,
  ..
}

Beware using the JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(obj)) method on Date objects - JSON.stringify(new Date()) returns a string representation of the date in ISO format, which JSON.parse() doesn't convert back to a Date object. See this answer for more details.

Additionally, please note that, in Chrome 65 at least, native cloning is not the way to go. According to JSPerf, performing native cloning by creating a new function is nearly 800x slower than using JSON.stringify which is incredibly fast all the way across the board.

Update for ES6

If you are using Javascript ES6 try this native method for cloning or shallow copy.

Object.assign({}, obj);

Answer 3

Structured Cloning

2022 update: The structuredClone global function is already available in Firefox 94, Node 17 and Deno 1.14

The HTML standard includes an internal structured cloning/serialization algorithm that can create deep clones of objects. It is still limited to certain built-in types, but in addition to the few types supported by JSON it also supports Dates, RegExps, Maps, Sets, Blobs, FileLists, ImageDatas, sparse Arrays, Typed Arrays, and probably more in the future. It also preserves references within the cloned data, allowing it to support cyclical and recursive structures that would cause errors for JSON.

Support in Node.js:

The structuredClone global function is provided by Node 17.0:

const clone = structuredClone(original);

Previous versions: The v8 module in Node.js (as of Node 11) exposes the structured serialization API directly, but this functionality is still marked as "experimental", and subject to change or removal in future versions. If you're using a compatible version, cloning an object is as simple as:

const v8 = require('v8');

const structuredClone = obj => {
  return v8.deserialize(v8.serialize(obj));
};

Direct Support in Browsers: Available in Firefox 94

The structuredClone global function will soon be provided by all major browsers (having previously been discussed in whatwg/html#793 on GitHub). It looks / will look like this:

const clone = structuredClone(original);

Until this is shipped, browsers' structured clone implementations are only exposed indirectly.

Asynchronous Workaround: Usable.

The lower-overhead way to create a structured clone with existing APIs is to post the data through one port of a MessageChannels. The other port will emit a message event with a structured clone of the attached .data. Unfortunately, listening for these events is necessarily asynchronous, and the synchronous alternatives are less practical.

class StructuredCloner {
  constructor() {
    this.pendingClones_ = new Map();
    this.nextKey_ = 0;
    
    const channel = new MessageChannel();
    this.inPort_ = channel.port1;
    this.outPort_ = channel.port2;
    
    this.outPort_.onmessage = ({data: {key, value}}) => {
      const resolve = this.pendingClones_.get(key);
      resolve(value);
      this.pendingClones_.delete(key);
    };
    this.outPort_.start();
  }

  cloneAsync(value) {
    return new Promise(resolve => {
      const key = this.nextKey_++;
      this.pendingClones_.set(key, resolve);
      this.inPort_.postMessage({key, value});
    });
  }
}

const structuredCloneAsync = window.structuredCloneAsync =
    StructuredCloner.prototype.cloneAsync.bind(new StructuredCloner);

Example Use:

const main = async () => {
  const original = { date: new Date(), number: Math.random() };
  original.self = original;

  const clone = await structuredCloneAsync(original);

  // They're different objects:
  console.assert(original !== clone);
  console.assert(original.date !== clone.date);

  // They're cyclical:
  console.assert(original.self === original);
  console.assert(clone.self === clone);

  // They contain equivalent values:
  console.assert(original.number === clone.number);
  console.assert(Number(original.date) === Number(clone.date));
  
  console.log("Assertions complete.");
};

main();

Synchronous Workarounds: Awful!

There are no good options for creating structured clones synchronously. Here are a couple of impractical hacks instead.

history.pushState() and history.replaceState() both create a structured clone of their first argument, and assign that value to history.state. You can use this to create a structured clone of any object like this:

const structuredClone = obj => {
  const oldState = history.state;
  history.replaceState(obj, null);
  const clonedObj = history.state;
  history.replaceState(oldState, null);
  return clonedObj;
};

Example Use:

'use strict';

const main = () => {
  const original = { date: new Date(), number: Math.random() };
  original.self = original;

  const clone = structuredClone(original);
  
  // They're different objects:
  console.assert(original !== clone);
  console.assert(original.date !== clone.date);

  // They're cyclical:
  console.assert(original.self === original);
  console.assert(clone.self === clone);

  // They contain equivalent values:
  console.assert(original.number === clone.number);
  console.assert(Number(original.date) === Number(clone.date));
  
  console.log("Assertions complete.");
};

const structuredClone = obj => {
  const oldState = history.state;
  history.replaceState(obj, null);
  const clonedObj = history.state;
  history.replaceState(oldState, null);
  return clonedObj;
};

main();

Though synchronous, this can be extremely slow. It incurs all of the overhead associated with manipulating the browser history. Calling this method repeatedly can cause Chrome to become temporarily unresponsive.

The Notification constructor creates a structured clone of its associated data. It also attempts to display a browser notification to the user, but this will silently fail unless you have requested notification permission. In case you have the permission for other purposes, we'll immediately close the notification we've created.

const structuredClone = obj => {
  const n = new Notification('', {data: obj, silent: true});
  n.onshow = n.close.bind(n);
  return n.data;
};

Example Use:

'use strict';

const main = () => {
  const original = { date: new Date(), number: Math.random() };
  original.self = original;

  const clone = structuredClone(original);
  
  // They're different objects:
  console.assert(original !== clone);
  console.assert(original.date !== clone.date);

  // They're cyclical:
  console.assert(original.self === original);
  console.assert(clone.self === clone);

  // They contain equivalent values:
  console.assert(original.number === clone.number);
  console.assert(Number(original.date) === Number(clone.date));
  
  console.log("Assertions complete.");
};

const structuredClone = obj => {
  const n = new Notification('', {data: obj, silent: true});
  n.close();
  return n.data;
};

main();

Answer 4

Assuming that you have only properties and not any functions in your object, you can just use:

var newObject = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(oldObject));

Answer 5

If there wasn't any builtin one, you could try:

function clone(obj) {
    if (obj === null || typeof (obj) !== 'object' || 'isActiveClone' in obj)
        return obj;

    if (obj instanceof Date)
        var temp = new obj.constructor(); //or new Date(obj);
    else
        var temp = obj.constructor();

    for (var key in obj) {
        if (Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(obj, key)) {
            obj['isActiveClone'] = null;
            temp[key] = clone(obj[key]);
            delete obj['isActiveClone'];
        }
    }
    return temp;
}

Answer 6

The efficient way to clone(not deep-clone) an object in one line of code

An Object.assign method is part of the ECMAScript 2015 (ES6) standard and does exactly what you need.

var clone = Object.assign({}, obj);

The Object.assign() method is used to copy the values of all enumerable own properties from one or more source objects to a target object.

Read more...

The polyfill to support older browsers:

if (!Object.assign) {
  Object.defineProperty(Object, 'assign', {
    enumerable: false,
    configurable: true,
    writable: true,
    value: function(target) {
      'use strict';
      if (target === undefined || target === null) {
        throw new TypeError('Cannot convert first argument to object');
      }

      var to = Object(target);
      for (var i = 1; i < arguments.length; i++) {
        var nextSource = arguments[i];
        if (nextSource === undefined || nextSource === null) {
          continue;
        }
        nextSource = Object(nextSource);

        var keysArray = Object.keys(nextSource);
        for (var nextIndex = 0, len = keysArray.length; nextIndex < len; nextIndex++) {
          var nextKey = keysArray[nextIndex];
          var desc = Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor(nextSource, nextKey);
          if (desc !== undefined && desc.enumerable) {
            to[nextKey] = nextSource[nextKey];
          }
        }
      }
      return to;
    }
  });
}

Answer 7

Deep copy by performance:

Ranked from best to worst, based on benchmarks
https://www.measurethat.net/Benchmarks/Show/17502/0/deep-copy-comparison

• spread operator ... (primitive arrays - only)
• slice() (primitive arrays - only)
• splice(0) (primitive arrays - only)
• concat() (primitive arrays - only)
• JSON.parse(JSON.stringify()) (primitive and literal arrays - only)
• custom function, as seen below (any array)
• Lodash's _.cloneDeep() (any array)
• jQuery's $.extend() (any array)
• Underscore's _.clone() (primitive and literal arrays - only)

Where:

• primitives = strings, numbers, and booleans
• literals = object literals {}, array literals []
• any = primitives, literals, and prototypes

Deep copy an array of primitives:

let arr1a = [1, 'a', true];

To deep copy arrays with primitives only (i.e. numbers, strings, and booleans), reassignment, slice(), concat(), and Underscore's clone() can be used.

Where spread has the fastest performance:

let arr1b = [...arr1a];

And where slice() has better performance than splice(0) and concat()

let arr1d = arr1a.slice();
let arr1c = arr1a.splice(0);
let arr1e = arr1a.concat();

Deep copy an array of primitive and object literals:

let arr2a = [1, 'a', true, {}, []];
let arr2b = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(arr2a));

Deep copy an array of primitive, object literals, and prototypes:

let arr3a = [1, 'a', true, {}, [], new Object()];

Write a custom function (has faster performance than jQuery $.extend()):

function copy(aObject) {
  // Prevent undefined objects
  // if (!aObject) return aObject;

  let bObject = Array.isArray(aObject) ? [] : {};

  let value;
  for (const key in aObject) {

    // Prevent self-references to parent object
    // if (Object.is(aObject[key], aObject)) continue;
    
    value = aObject[key];

    bObject[key] = (typeof value === "object") ? copy(value) : value;
  }

  return bObject;
}

let arr3b = copy(arr3a);

Or use third-party utility functions:

let arr3c = $.extend(true, [], arr3a); // jQuery
let arr3d = _.cloneDeep(arr3a); // Lodash

Answer 8

This is what I'm using:

function cloneObject(obj) {
    var clone = {};
    for(var i in obj) {
        if(typeof(obj[i])=="object" && obj[i] != null)
            clone[i] = cloneObject(obj[i]);
        else
            clone[i] = obj[i];
    }
    return clone;
}

Answer 9

Code:

// extends 'from' object with members from 'to'. If 'to' is null, a deep clone of 'from' is returned
function extend(from, to)
{
    if (from == null || typeof from != "object") return from;
    if (from.constructor != Object && from.constructor != Array) return from;
    if (from.constructor == Date || from.constructor == RegExp || from.constructor == Function ||
        from.constructor == String || from.constructor == Number || from.constructor == Boolean)
        return new from.constructor(from);

    to = to || new from.constructor();

    for (var name in from)
    {
        to[name] = typeof to[name] == "undefined" ? extend(from[name], null) : to[name];
    }

    return to;
}

Test:

var obj =
{
    date: new Date(),
    func: function(q) { return 1 + q; },
    num: 123,
    text: "asdasd",
    array: [1, "asd"],
    regex: new RegExp(/aaa/i),
    subobj:
    {
        num: 234,
        text: "asdsaD"
    }
}

var clone = extend(obj);

Answer 10

Deep copying objects in JavaScript (I think the best and the simplest)

1. Using JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(object));

var obj = { 
  a: 1,
  b: { 
    c: 2
  }
}
var newObj = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(obj));
obj.b.c = 20;
console.log(obj); // { a: 1, b: { c: 20 } }
console.log(newObj); // { a: 1, b: { c: 2 } } 

2.Using created method

function cloneObject(obj) {
    var clone = {};
    for(var i in obj) {
        if(obj[i] != null &&  typeof(obj[i])=="object")
            clone[i] = cloneObject(obj[i]);
        else
            clone[i] = obj[i];
    }
    return clone;
}

var obj = { 
  a: 1,
  b: { 
    c: 2
  }
}
var newObj = cloneObject(obj);
obj.b.c = 20;

console.log(obj); // { a: 1, b: { c: 20 } }
console.log(newObj); // { a: 1, b: { c: 2 } } 

3. Using Lo-Dash's _.cloneDeep link lodash

var obj = { 
  a: 1,
  b: { 
    c: 2
  }
}

var newObj = _.cloneDeep(obj);
obj.b.c = 20;
console.log(obj); // { a: 1, b: { c: 20 } }
console.log(newObj); // { a: 1, b: { c: 2 } } 

4. Using Object.assign() method

var obj = { 
  a: 1,
  b: 2
}

var newObj = _.clone(obj);
obj.b = 20;
console.log(obj); // { a: 1, b: 20 }
console.log(newObj); // { a: 1, b: 2 }  

BUT WRONG WHEN

var obj = { 
  a: 1,
  b: { 
    c: 2
  }
}

var newObj = Object.assign({}, obj);
obj.b.c = 20;
console.log(obj); // { a: 1, b: { c: 20 } }
console.log(newObj); // { a: 1, b: { c: 20 } } --> WRONG
// Note: Properties on the prototype chain and non-enumerable properties cannot be copied.

5.Using Underscore.js _.clone link Underscore.js

var obj = { 
  a: 1,
  b: 2
}

var newObj = _.clone(obj);
obj.b = 20;
console.log(obj); // { a: 1, b: 20 }
console.log(newObj); // { a: 1, b: 2 }  

BUT WRONG WHEN

var obj = { 
  a: 1,
  b: { 
    c: 2
  }
}

var newObj = _.cloneDeep(obj);
obj.b.c = 20;
console.log(obj); // { a: 1, b: { c: 20 } }
console.log(newObj); // { a: 1, b: { c: 20 } } --> WRONG
// (Create a shallow-copied clone of the provided plain object. Any nested objects or arrays will be copied by reference, not duplicated.)

JSBEN.CH Performance Benchmarking Playground 1~3 http://jsben.ch/KVQLd

Answer 11

Cloning an object was always a concern in JS, but it was all about before ES6, I list different ways of copying an object in JavaScript below, imagine you have the Object below and would like to have a deep copy of that:

var obj = {a:1, b:2, c:3, d:4};

There are few ways to copy this object, without changing the origin:

1. ES5+, Using a simple function to do the copy for you:

   function deepCopyObj(obj) {
       if (null == obj || "object" != typeof obj) return obj;
       if (obj instanceof Date) {
           var copy = new Date();
           copy.setTime(obj.getTime());
           return copy;
       }
       if (obj instanceof Array) {
           var copy = [];
           for (var i = 0, len = obj.length; i < len; i++) {
               copy[i] = deepCopyObj(obj[i]);
           }
           return copy;
       }
       if (obj instanceof Object) {
           var copy = {};
           for (var attr in obj) {
               if (obj.hasOwnProperty(attr)) copy[attr] = deepCopyObj(obj[attr]);
           }
           return copy;
       }
       throw new Error("Unable to copy obj this object.");
   }
   

2. ES5+, using JSON.parse and JSON.stringify.

   var deepCopyObj = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(obj));
   

3. Angular:

   var deepCopyObj = angular.copy(obj);
   

4. jQuery:

   var deepCopyObj = jQuery.extend(true, {}, obj);
   

5. Underscore.js & Lodash:

   var deepCopyObj = _.cloneDeep(obj); //latest version of Underscore.js makes shallow copy
   

Hope these help…

Answer 12

var clone = function() {
    var newObj = (this instanceof Array) ? [] : {};
    for (var i in this) {
        if (this[i] && typeof this[i] == "object") {
            newObj[i] = this[i].clone();
        }
        else
        {
            newObj[i] = this[i];
        }
    }
    return newObj;
}; 

Object.defineProperty( Object.prototype, "clone", {value: clone, enumerable: false});

Answer 13

There’s a library (called “clone”), that does this quite well. It provides the most complete recursive cloning/copying of arbitrary objects that I know of. It also supports circular references, which is not covered by the other answers, yet.

You can find it on npm, too. It can be used for the browser as well as Node.js.

Here is an example on how to use it:

Install it with

npm install clone

or package it with Ender.

ender build clone [...]

You can also download the source code manually.

Then you can use it in your source code.

var clone = require('clone');

var a = { foo: { bar: 'baz' } };  // inital value of a
var b = clone(a);                 // clone a -> b
a.foo.bar = 'foo';                // change a

console.log(a);                   // { foo: { bar: 'foo' } }
console.log(b);                   // { foo: { bar: 'baz' } }

(Disclaimer: I’m the author of the library.)

Answer 14

I know this is an old post, but I thought this may be of some help to the next person who stumbles along.

As long as you don't assign an object to anything it maintains no reference in memory. So to make an object that you want to share among other objects, you'll have to create a factory like so:

var a = function(){
    return {
        father:'zacharias'
    };
},
b = a(),
c = a();
c.father = 'johndoe';
alert(b.father);

Answer 15

If you're using it, the Underscore.js library has a clone method.

var newObject = _.clone(oldObject);

Answer 16

Here's a version of ConroyP's answer above that works even if the constructor has required parameters:

//If Object.create isn't already defined, we just do the simple shim,
//without the second argument, since that's all we need here
var object_create = Object.create;
if (typeof object_create !== 'function') {
    object_create = function(o) {
        function F() {}
        F.prototype = o;
        return new F();
    };
}

function deepCopy(obj) {
    if(obj == null || typeof(obj) !== 'object'){
        return obj;
    }
    //make sure the returned object has the same prototype as the original
    var ret = object_create(obj.constructor.prototype);
    for(var key in obj){
        ret[key] = deepCopy(obj[key]);
    }
    return ret;
}

This function is also available in my simpleoo library.

Edit:

Here's a more robust version (thanks to Justin McCandless this now supports cyclic references as well):

/**
 * Deep copy an object (make copies of all its object properties, sub-properties, etc.)
 * An improved version of http://keithdevens.com/weblog/archive/2007/Jun/07/javascript.clone
 * that doesn't break if the constructor has required parameters
 * 
 * It also borrows some code from http://stackoverflow.com/a/11621004/560114
 */ 
function deepCopy(src, /* INTERNAL */ _visited, _copiesVisited) {
    if(src === null || typeof(src) !== 'object'){
        return src;
    }

    //Honor native/custom clone methods
    if(typeof src.clone == 'function'){
        return src.clone(true);
    }

    //Special cases:
    //Date
    if(src instanceof Date){
        return new Date(src.getTime());
    }
    //RegExp
    if(src instanceof RegExp){
        return new RegExp(src);
    }
    //DOM Element
    if(src.nodeType && typeof src.cloneNode == 'function'){
        return src.cloneNode(true);
    }

    // Initialize the visited objects arrays if needed.
    // This is used to detect cyclic references.
    if (_visited === undefined){
        _visited = [];
        _copiesVisited = [];
    }

    // Check if this object has already been visited
    var i, len = _visited.length;
    for (i = 0; i < len; i++) {
        // If so, get the copy we already made
        if (src === _visited[i]) {
            return _copiesVisited[i];
        }
    }

    //Array
    if (Object.prototype.toString.call(src) == '[object Array]') {
        //[].slice() by itself would soft clone
        var ret = src.slice();

        //add it to the visited array
        _visited.push(src);
        _copiesVisited.push(ret);

        var i = ret.length;
        while (i--) {
            ret[i] = deepCopy(ret[i], _visited, _copiesVisited);
        }
        return ret;
    }

    //If we've reached here, we have a regular object

    //make sure the returned object has the same prototype as the original
    var proto = (Object.getPrototypeOf ? Object.getPrototypeOf(src): src.__proto__);
    if (!proto) {
        proto = src.constructor.prototype; //this line would probably only be reached by very old browsers 
    }
    var dest = object_create(proto);

    //add this object to the visited array
    _visited.push(src);
    _copiesVisited.push(dest);

    for (var key in src) {
        //Note: this does NOT preserve ES5 property attributes like 'writable', 'enumerable', etc.
        //For an example of how this could be modified to do so, see the singleMixin() function
        dest[key] = deepCopy(src[key], _visited, _copiesVisited);
    }
    return dest;
}

//If Object.create isn't already defined, we just do the simple shim,
//without the second argument, since that's all we need here
var object_create = Object.create;
if (typeof object_create !== 'function') {
    object_create = function(o) {
        function F() {}
        F.prototype = o;
        return new F();
    };
}

Answer 17

The following creates two instances of the same object. I found it and am using it currently. It's simple and easy to use.

var objToCreate = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(cloneThis));

Answer 18

Crockford suggests (and I prefer) using this function:

function object(o) {
    function F() {}
    F.prototype = o;
    return new F();
}

var newObject = object(oldObject);

It's terse, works as expected and you don't need a library.

---

EDIT:

This is a polyfill for Object.create, so you also can use this.

var newObject = Object.create(oldObject);

NOTE: If you use some of this, you may have problems with some iteration who use hasOwnProperty. Because, create create new empty object who inherits oldObject. But it is still useful and practical for cloning objects.

For exemple if oldObject.a = 5;

newObject.a; // is 5

but:

oldObject.hasOwnProperty(a); // is true
newObject.hasOwnProperty(a); // is false

Answer 19

function clone(obj)
 { var clone = {};
   clone.prototype = obj.prototype;
   for (property in obj) clone[property] = obj[property];
   return clone;
 }

Answer 20

Lodash has a nice _.cloneDeep(value) method:

var objects = [{ 'a': 1 }, { 'b': 2 }];

var deep = _.cloneDeep(objects);
console.log(deep[0] === objects[0]);
// => false

Answer 21

Shallow copy one-liner (ECMAScript 5th edition):

var origin = { foo : {} };
var copy = Object.keys(origin).reduce(function(c,k){c[k]=origin[k];return c;},{});

console.log(origin, copy);
console.log(origin == copy); // false
console.log(origin.foo == copy.foo); // true

And shallow copy one-liner (ECMAScript 6th edition, 2015):

var origin = { foo : {} };
var copy = Object.assign({}, origin);

console.log(origin, copy);
console.log(origin == copy); // false
console.log(origin.foo == copy.foo); // true

Answer 22

There seems to be no ideal deep clone operator yet for array-like objects. As the code below illustrates, John Resig's jQuery cloner turns arrays with non-numeric properties into objects that are not arrays, and RegDwight's JSON cloner drops the non-numeric properties. The following tests illustrate these points on multiple browsers:

function jQueryClone(obj) {
   return jQuery.extend(true, {}, obj)
}

function JSONClone(obj) {
   return JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(obj))
}

var arrayLikeObj = [[1, "a", "b"], [2, "b", "a"]];
arrayLikeObj.names = ["m", "n", "o"];
var JSONCopy = JSONClone(arrayLikeObj);
var jQueryCopy = jQueryClone(arrayLikeObj);

alert("Is arrayLikeObj an array instance?" + (arrayLikeObj instanceof Array) +
      "\nIs the jQueryClone an array instance? " + (jQueryCopy instanceof Array) +
      "\nWhat are the arrayLikeObj names? " + arrayLikeObj.names +
      "\nAnd what are the JSONClone names? " + JSONCopy.names)

Answer 23

I have two good answers depending on whether your objective is to clone a "plain old JavaScript object" or not.

Let's also assume that your intention is to create a complete clone with no prototype references back to the source object. If you're not interested in a complete clone, then you can use many of the Object.clone() routines provided in some of the other answers (Crockford's pattern).

For plain old JavaScript objects, a tried and true good way to clone an object in modern runtimes is quite simply:

var clone = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(obj));

Note that the source object must be a pure JSON object. This is to say, all of its nested properties must be scalars (like boolean, string, array, object, etc). Any functions or special objects like RegExp or Date will not be cloned.

Is it efficient? Heck yes. We've tried all kinds of cloning methods and this works best. I'm sure some ninja could conjure up a faster method. But I suspect we're talking about marginal gains.

This approach is just simple and easy to implement. Wrap it into a convenience function and if you really need to squeeze out some gain, go for at a later time.

Now, for non-plain JavaScript objects, there isn't a really simple answer. In fact, there can't be because of the dynamic nature of JavaScript functions and inner object state. Deep cloning a JSON structure with functions inside requires you recreate those functions and their inner context. And JavaScript simply doesn't have a standardized way of doing that.

The correct way to do this, once again, is via a convenience method that you declare and reuse within your code. The convenience method can be endowed with some understanding of your own objects so you can make sure to properly recreate the graph within the new object.

We're written our own, but the best general approach I've seen is covered here:

http://davidwalsh.name/javascript-clone

This is the right idea. The author (David Walsh) has commented out the cloning of generalized functions. This is something you might choose to do, depending on your use case.

The main idea is that you need to special handle the instantiation of your functions (or prototypal classes, so to speak) on a per-type basis. Here, he's provided a few examples for RegExp and Date.

Not only is this code brief, but it's also very readable. It's pretty easy to extend.

Is this efficient? Heck yes. Given that the goal is to produce a true deep-copy clone, then you're going to have to walk the members of the source object graph. With this approach, you can tweak exactly which child members to treat and how to manually handle custom types.

So there you go. Two approaches. Both are efficient in my view.

Answer 24

Just because I didn't see AngularJS mentioned and thought that people might want to know...

angular.copy also provides a method of deep copying objects and arrays.

Answer 25

Only when you can use ECMAScript 6 or transpilers.

Features:

• Won't trigger getter/setter while copying.
• Preserves getter/setter.
• Preserves prototype informations.
• Works with both object-literal and functional OO writing styles.

Code:

function clone(target, source){

    for(let key in source){

        // Use getOwnPropertyDescriptor instead of source[key] to prevent from trigering setter/getter.
        let descriptor = Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor(source, key);
        if(descriptor.value instanceof String){
            target[key] = new String(descriptor.value);
        }
        else if(descriptor.value instanceof Array){
            target[key] = clone([], descriptor.value);
        }
        else if(descriptor.value instanceof Object){
            let prototype = Reflect.getPrototypeOf(descriptor.value);
            let cloneObject = clone({}, descriptor.value);
            Reflect.setPrototypeOf(cloneObject, prototype);
            target[key] = cloneObject;
        }
        else {
            Object.defineProperty(target, key, descriptor);
        }
    }
    let prototype = Reflect.getPrototypeOf(source);
    Reflect.setPrototypeOf(target, prototype);
    return target;
}

Answer 26

I am late to answer this question, but I have an another way of cloning the object:

function cloneObject(obj) {
    if (obj === null || typeof(obj) !== 'object')
        return obj;
    var temp = obj.constructor(); // changed
    for (var key in obj) {
        if (Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(obj, key)) {
            obj['isActiveClone'] = null;
            temp[key] = cloneObject(obj[key]);
            delete obj['isActiveClone'];
        }
    }
    return temp;
}

var b = cloneObject({"a":1,"b":2});   // calling

which is much better and faster then:

var a = {"a":1,"b":2};
var b = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(a));  

and

var a = {"a":1,"b":2};

// Deep copy
var newObject = jQuery.extend(true, {}, a);

I have bench-marked the code and you can test the results here:

and sharing the results: References: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Object/hasOwnProperty

Answer 27

This isn't generally the most efficient solution, but it does what I need. Simple test cases below...

function clone(obj, clones) {
    // Makes a deep copy of 'obj'. Handles cyclic structures by
    // tracking cloned obj's in the 'clones' parameter. Functions 
    // are included, but not cloned. Functions members are cloned.
    var new_obj,
        already_cloned,
        t = typeof obj,
        i = 0,
        l,
        pair; 

    clones = clones || [];

    if (obj === null) {
        return obj;
    }

    if (t === "object" || t === "function") {

        // check to see if we've already cloned obj
        for (i = 0, l = clones.length; i < l; i++) {
            pair = clones[i];
            if (pair[0] === obj) {
                already_cloned = pair[1];
                break;
            }
        }

        if (already_cloned) {
            return already_cloned; 
        } else {
            if (t === "object") { // create new object
                new_obj = new obj.constructor();
            } else { // Just use functions as is
                new_obj = obj;
            }

            clones.push([obj, new_obj]); // keep track of objects we've cloned

            for (key in obj) { // clone object members
                if (obj.hasOwnProperty(key)) {
                    new_obj[key] = clone(obj[key], clones);
                }
            }
        }
    }
    return new_obj || obj;
}

Cyclic array test...

a = []
a.push("b", "c", a)
aa = clone(a)
aa === a //=> false
aa[2] === a //=> false
aa[2] === a[2] //=> false
aa[2] === aa //=> true

Function test...

f = new Function
f.a = a
ff = clone(f)
ff === f //=> true
ff.a === a //=> false

Answer 28

For the people who want to use the JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(obj)) version, but without losing the Date objects, you can use the second argument of parse method to convert the strings back to Date:

function clone(obj) {
  var regExp = /^\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}T\d{2}:\d{2}:\d{2}\.\d{3}Z$/;
  return JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(obj), function(k, v) {
    if (typeof v === 'string' && regExp.test(v))
      return new Date(v)
    return v;
  })
}

// usage:
var original = {
 a: [1, null, undefined, 0, {a:null}, new Date()],
 b: {
   c(){ return 0 }
 }
}

var cloned = clone(original)

console.log(cloned)

Answer 29

I disagree with the answer with the greatest votes here. A Recursive Deep Clone is much faster than the JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(obj)) approach mentioned.

• Jsperf ranks it number one here: https://jsperf.com/deep-copy-vs-json-stringify-json-parse/5
• Jsben from the answer above updated to show that a recursive deep clone beats all the others mentioned: http://jsben.ch/13YKQ

And here's the function for quick reference:

function cloneDeep (o) {
  let newO
  let i

  if (typeof o !== 'object') return o

  if (!o) return o

  if (Object.prototype.toString.apply(o) === '[object Array]') {
    newO = []
    for (i = 0; i < o.length; i += 1) {
      newO[i] = cloneDeep(o[i])
    }
    return newO
  }

  newO = {}
  for (i in o) {
    if (o.hasOwnProperty(i)) {
      newO[i] = cloneDeep(o[i])
    }
  }
  return newO
}

Answer 30

Here is a comprehensive clone() method that can clone any JavaScript object. It handles almost all the cases:

function clone(src, deep) {

    var toString = Object.prototype.toString;
    if (!src && typeof src != "object") {
        // Any non-object (Boolean, String, Number), null, undefined, NaN
        return src;
    }

    // Honor native/custom clone methods
    if (src.clone && toString.call(src.clone) == "[object Function]") {
        return src.clone(deep);
    }

    // DOM elements
    if (src.nodeType && toString.call(src.cloneNode) == "[object Function]") {
        return src.cloneNode(deep);
    }

    // Date
    if (toString.call(src) == "[object Date]") {
        return new Date(src.getTime());
    }

    // RegExp
    if (toString.call(src) == "[object RegExp]") {
        return new RegExp(src);
    }

    // Function
    if (toString.call(src) == "[object Function]") {

        //Wrap in another method to make sure == is not true;
        //Note: Huge performance issue due to closures, comment this :)
        return (function(){
            src.apply(this, arguments);
        });
    }

    var ret, index;
    //Array
    if (toString.call(src) == "[object Array]") {
        //[].slice(0) would soft clone
        ret = src.slice();
        if (deep) {
            index = ret.length;
            while (index--) {
                ret[index] = clone(ret[index], true);
            }
        }
    }
    //Object
    else {
        ret = src.constructor ? new src.constructor() : {};
        for (var prop in src) {
            ret[prop] = deep
                ? clone(src[prop], true)
                : src[prop];
        }
    }
    return ret;
};

Answer 31

// obj target object, vals source object
var setVals = function (obj, vals) {
    if (obj && vals) {
        for (var x in vals) {
            if (vals.hasOwnProperty(x)) {
                if (obj[x] && typeof vals[x] === 'object') {
                    obj[x] = setVals(obj[x], vals[x]);
                } else {
                    obj[x] = vals[x];
                }
            }
        }
    }
    return obj;
};

Answer 32

AngularJS

Well if you're using angular you could do this too

var newObject = angular.copy(oldObject);

Answer 33

In JavaScript, you can write your deepCopy method like

function deepCopy(src) {
  let target = Array.isArray(src) ? [] : {};
  for (let prop in src) {
    let value = src[prop];
    if(value && typeof value === 'object') {
      target[prop] = deepCopy(value);
  } else {
      target[prop] = value;
  }
 }
    return target;
}

Answer 34

I use the npm clone library. Apparently it also works in the browser.

https://www.npmjs.com/package/clone

let a = clone(b)

Answer 35

In my experience, a recursive version vastly outperforms JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(obj)). Here is a modernized recursive deep object copy function which can fit on a single line:

function deepCopy(obj) {
  return Object.keys(obj).reduce((v, d) => Object.assign(v, {
    [d]: (obj[d].constructor === Object) ? deepCopy(obj[d]) : obj[d]
  }), {});
}

This is performing around 40 times faster than the JSON.parse... method.

Answer 36

As recursion is just too expensive for JavaScript, and most answers I have found are using recursion, while JSON approach will skip the non-JSON-convertible parts (Function, etc.). So I did a little research and found this trampoline technique to avoid it. Here's the code:

/*
 * Trampoline to avoid recursion in JavaScript, see:
 *     https://www.integralist.co.uk/posts/functional-recursive-javascript-programming/
 */
function trampoline() {
    var func = arguments[0];
    var args = [];
    for (var i = 1; i < arguments.length; i++) {
        args[i - 1] = arguments[i];
    }

    var currentBatch = func.apply(this, args);
    var nextBatch = [];

    while (currentBatch && currentBatch.length > 0) {
        currentBatch.forEach(function(eachFunc) {
            var ret = eachFunc();
            if (ret && ret.length > 0) {
                nextBatch = nextBatch.concat(ret);
            }
        });

        currentBatch = nextBatch;
        nextBatch = [];
    }
};

/*
 *  Deep clone an object using the trampoline technique.
 *
 *  @param target {Object} Object to clone
 *  @return {Object} Cloned object.
 */
function clone(target) {
    if (typeof target !== 'object') {
        return target;
    }
    if (target == null || Object.keys(target).length == 0) {
        return target;
    }

    function _clone(b, a) {
        var nextBatch = [];
        for (var key in b) {
            if (typeof b[key] === 'object' && b[key] !== null) {
                if (b[key] instanceof Array) {
                    a[key] = [];
                }
                else {
                    a[key] = {};
                }
                nextBatch.push(_clone.bind(null, b[key], a[key]));
            }
            else {
                a[key] = b[key];
            }
        }
        return nextBatch;
    };

    var ret = target instanceof Array ? [] : {};
    (trampoline.bind(null, _clone))(target, ret);
    return ret;
};

Answer 37

Single-line ECMAScript 6 solution (special object types like Date/Regex not handled):

const clone = (o) =>
  typeof o === 'object' && o !== null ?      // only clone objects
  (Array.isArray(o) ?                        // if cloning an array
    o.map(e => clone(e)) :                   // clone each of its elements
    Object.keys(o).reduce(                   // otherwise reduce every key in the object
      (r, k) => (r[k] = clone(o[k]), r), {}  // and save its cloned value into a new object
    )
  ) :
  o;                                         // return non-objects as is

var x = {
  nested: {
    name: 'test'
  }
};

var y = clone(x);

console.log(x.nested !== y.nested);

Answer 38

Lodash has a function that handles that for you like so.

var foo = {a: 'a', b: {c:'d', e: {f: 'g'}}};

var bar = _.cloneDeep(foo);
// bar = {a: 'a', b: {c:'d', e: {f: 'g'}}} 

Read the docs here.

Answer 39

ES 2017 example:

let objectToCopy = someObj;
let copyOfObject = {};
Object.defineProperties(copyOfObject, Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptors(objectToCopy));
// copyOfObject will now be the same as objectToCopy

Answer 40

There are a lot of answers, but none of them gave the desired effect I needed. I wanted to utilize the power of jQuery's deep copy... However, when it runs into an array, it simply copies the reference to the array and deep copies the items in it. To get around this, I made a nice little recursive function that will create a new array automatically.

(It even checks for kendo.data.ObservableArray if you want it to! Though, make sure you make sure you call kendo.observable(newItem) if you want the Arrays to be observable again.)

So, to fully copy an existing item, you just do this:

var newItem = jQuery.extend(true, {}, oldItem);
createNewArrays(newItem);


function createNewArrays(obj) {
    for (var prop in obj) {
        if ((kendo != null && obj[prop] instanceof kendo.data.ObservableArray) || obj[prop] instanceof Array) {
            var copy = [];
            $.each(obj[prop], function (i, item) {
                var newChild = $.extend(true, {}, item);
                createNewArrays(newChild);
                copy.push(newChild);
            });
            obj[prop] = copy;
        }
    }
}

Answer 41

I usually use var newObj = JSON.parse( JSON.stringify(oldObje) ); but, here's a more proper way:

var o = {};

var oo = Object.create(o);

(o === oo); // => false

Watch legacy browsers!

Answer 42

For future reference, the current draft of ECMAScript 6 introduces Object.assign as a way of cloning objects. Example code would be:

var obj1 = { a: true, b: 1 };
var obj2 = Object.assign(obj1);
console.log(obj2); // { a: true, b: 1 }

At the time of writing support is limited to Firefox 34 in browsers so it’s not usable in production code just yet (unless you’re writing a Firefox extension of course).

Answer 43

There are so many ways to achieve this, but if you want to do this without any library, you can use the following:

const cloneObject = (oldObject) => {
  let newObject = oldObject;
  if (oldObject && typeof oldObject === 'object') {
    if(Array.isArray(oldObject)) {
      newObject = [];
    } else if (Object.prototype.toString.call(oldObject) === '[object Date]' && !isNaN(oldObject)) {
      newObject = new Date(oldObject.getTime());
    } else {
      newObject = {};
      for (let i in oldObject) {
        newObject[i] = cloneObject(oldObject[i]);
      }
    }

  }
  return newObject;
}

Let me know what you think.

Answer 44

Object.assign({},sourceObj) only clones the object if their property is not having reference type key. ex

obj={a:"lol",b:["yes","no","maybe"]}
clonedObj = Object.assign({},obj);

clonedObj.b.push("skip")// changes will reflected to the actual obj as well because of its reference type.
obj.b //will also console => yes,no,maybe,skip

So for the deep cloning is not possible to achieve in this way.

The best solution that works is

var obj = Json.stringify(yourSourceObj)
var cloned = Json.parse(obj);

Answer 45

This is the fastest method I have created that doesn't use the prototype, so it will maintain hasOwnProperty in the new object.

The solution is to iterate the top level properties of the original object, make two copies, delete each property from the original and then reset the original object and return the new copy. It only has to iterate as many times as top level properties. This saves all the if conditions to check if each property is a function, object, string, etc., and doesn't have to iterate each descendant property.

The only drawback is that the original object must be supplied with its original created namespace, in order to reset it.

copyDeleteAndReset:function(namespace,strObjName){
    var obj = namespace[strObjName],
    objNew = {},objOrig = {};
    for(i in obj){
        if(obj.hasOwnProperty(i)){
            objNew[i] = objOrig[i] = obj[i];
            delete obj[i];
        }
    }
    namespace[strObjName] = objOrig;
    return objNew;
}

var namespace = {};
namespace.objOrig = {
    '0':{
        innerObj:{a:0,b:1,c:2}
    }
}

var objNew = copyDeleteAndReset(namespace,'objOrig');
objNew['0'] = 'NEW VALUE';

console.log(objNew['0']) === 'NEW VALUE';
console.log(namespace.objOrig['0']) === innerObj:{a:0,b:1,c:2};

Answer 46

This is my version of object cloner. This is a stand-alone version of the jQuery method, with only few tweaks and adjustments. Check out the fiddle. I've used a lot of jQuery until the day I realized that I'd use only this function most of the time x_x.

The usage is the same as described into the jQuery API:

• Non-deep clone: extend(object_dest, object_source);
• Deep clone: extend(true, object_dest, object_source);

One extra function is used to define if object is proper to be cloned.

/**
 * This is a quasi clone of jQuery's extend() function.
 * by Romain WEEGER for wJs library - www.wexample.com
 * @returns {*|{}}
 */
function extend() {
    // Make a copy of arguments to avoid JavaScript inspector hints.
    var to_add, name, copy_is_array, clone,

    // The target object who receive parameters
    // form other objects.
    target = arguments[0] || {},

    // Index of first argument to mix to target.
    i = 1,

    // Mix target with all function arguments.
    length = arguments.length,

    // Define if we merge object recursively.
    deep = false;

    // Handle a deep copy situation.
    if (typeof target === 'boolean') {
        deep = target;

        // Skip the boolean and the target.
        target = arguments[ i ] || {};

        // Use next object as first added.
        i++;
    }

    // Handle case when target is a string or something (possible in deep copy)
    if (typeof target !== 'object' && typeof target !== 'function') {
        target = {};
    }

    // Loop trough arguments.
    for (false; i < length; i += 1) {

        // Only deal with non-null/undefined values
        if ((to_add = arguments[ i ]) !== null) {

            // Extend the base object.
            for (name in to_add) {

                // We do not wrap for loop into hasOwnProperty,
                // to access to all values of object.
                // Prevent never-ending loop.
                if (target === to_add[name]) {
                    continue;
                }

                // Recurse if we're merging plain objects or arrays.
                if (deep && to_add[name] && (is_plain_object(to_add[name]) || (copy_is_array = Array.isArray(to_add[name])))) {
                    if (copy_is_array) {
                        copy_is_array = false;
                        clone = target[name] && Array.isArray(target[name]) ? target[name] : [];
                    }
                    else {
                        clone = target[name] && is_plain_object(target[name]) ? target[name] : {};
                    }

                    // Never move original objects, clone them.
                    target[name] = extend(deep, clone, to_add[name]);
                }

                // Don't bring in undefined values.
                else if (to_add[name] !== undefined) {
                    target[name] = to_add[name];
                }
            }
        }
    }
    return target;
}

/**
 * Check to see if an object is a plain object
 * (created using "{}" or "new Object").
 * Forked from jQuery.
 * @param obj
 * @returns {boolean}
 */
function is_plain_object(obj) {
    // Not plain objects:
    // - Any object or value whose internal [[Class]] property is not "[object Object]"
    // - DOM nodes
    // - window
    if (obj === null || typeof obj !== "object" || obj.nodeType || (obj !== null && obj === obj.window)) {
        return false;
    }
    // Support: Firefox <20
    // The try/catch suppresses exceptions thrown when attempting to access
    // the "constructor" property of certain host objects, i.e. |window.location|
    // https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=814622
    try {
        if (obj.constructor && !this.hasOwnProperty.call(obj.constructor.prototype, "isPrototypeOf")) {
            return false;
        }
    }
    catch (e) {
        return false;
    }

    // If the function hasn't returned already, we're confident that
    // |obj| is a plain object, created by {} or constructed with new Object
    return true;
}

Answer 47

Here is my way of deep cloning a object with ES2015 default value and spread operator

 const makeDeepCopy = (obj, copy = {}) => {
  for (let item in obj) {
    if (typeof obj[item] === 'object') {
      makeDeepCopy(obj[item], copy)
    }
    if (obj.hasOwnProperty(item)) {
      copy = {
        ...obj
      }
    }
  }
  return copy
}

const testObj = {
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "userId": {
      "type": "string",
      "chance": "guid"
    },
    "emailAddr": {
      "type": "string",
      "chance": {
        "email": {
          "domain": "fake.com"
        }
      },
      "pattern": ".+@fake.com"
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "userId",
    "emailAddr"
  ]
}

const makeDeepCopy = (obj, copy = {}) => {
  for (let item in obj) {
    if (typeof obj[item] === 'object') {
      makeDeepCopy(obj[item], copy)
    }
    if (obj.hasOwnProperty(item)) {
      copy = {
        ...obj
      }
    }
  }
  return copy
}

console.log(makeDeepCopy(testObj))

Answer 48

Looking through this long list of answers nearly all the solutions have been covered except one that I am aware of. This is the list of VANILLA JS ways of deep cloning an object.

1. JSON.parse(JSON.stringify( obj ) );

2. Through history.state with pushState or replaceState

3. Web Notifications API but this has the downside of asking the user for permissions.

4. Doing your own recursive loop through the object to copy each level.

5. The answer I didn't see -> Using ServiceWorkers. The messages (objects) passed back and forth between the page and the ServiceWorker script will be deep clones of any object.

Answer 49

Hope this helps.

function deepClone(obj) {
    /*
     * Duplicates an object 
     */

    var ret = null;
    if (obj !== Object(obj)) { // primitive types
        return obj;
    }
    if (obj instanceof String || obj instanceof Number || obj instanceof Boolean) { // string objecs
        ret = obj; // for ex: obj = new String("Spidergap")
    } else if (obj instanceof Date) { // date
        ret = new obj.constructor();
    } else
        ret = Object.create(obj.constructor.prototype);

    var prop = null;
    var allProps = Object.getOwnPropertyNames(obj); //gets non enumerables also


    var props = {};
    for (var i in allProps) {
        prop = allProps[i];
        props[prop] = false;
    }

    for (i in obj) {
        props[i] = i;
    }

    //now props contain both enums and non enums 
    var propDescriptor = null;
    var newPropVal = null; // value of the property in new object
    for (i in props) {
        prop = obj[i];
        propDescriptor = Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor(obj, i);

        if (Array.isArray(prop)) { //not backward compatible
            prop = prop.slice(); // to copy the array
        } else
        if (prop instanceof Date == true) {
            prop = new prop.constructor();
        } else
        if (prop instanceof Object == true) {
            if (prop instanceof Function == true) { // function
                if (!Function.prototype.clone) {
                    Function.prototype.clone = function() {
                        var that = this;
                        var temp = function tmp() {
                            return that.apply(this, arguments);
                        };
                        for (var ky in this) {
                            temp[ky] = this[ky];
                        }
                        return temp;
                    }
                }
                prop = prop.clone();

            } else // normal object 
            {
                prop = deepClone(prop);
            }

        }

        newPropVal = {
            value: prop
        };
        if (propDescriptor) {
            /*
             * If property descriptors are there, they must be copied
             */
            newPropVal.enumerable = propDescriptor.enumerable;
            newPropVal.writable = propDescriptor.writable;

        }
        if (!ret.hasOwnProperty(i)) // when String or other predefined objects
            Object.defineProperty(ret, i, newPropVal); // non enumerable

    }
    return ret;
}

https://github.com/jinujd/Javascript-Deep-Clone

Answer 50

My scenario was a bit different. I had an object with nested objects as well as functions. Therefore, Object.assign() and JSON.stringify() were not solutions to my problem. Using third-party libraries was not an option for me neither.

Hence, I decided to make a simple function to use built-in methods to copy an object with its literal properties, its nested objects, and functions.

let deepCopy = (target, source) => {
    Object.assign(target, source);
    // check if there's any nested objects
    Object.keys(source).forEach((prop) => {
        /**
          * assign function copies functions and
          * literals (int, strings, etc...)
          * except for objects and arrays, so:
          */
        if (typeof(source[prop]) === 'object') {
            // check if the item is, in fact, an array
            if (Array.isArray(source[prop])) {
                // clear the copied referenece of nested array
                target[prop] = Array();
                // iterate array's item and copy over
                source[prop].forEach((item, index) => {
                    // array's items could be objects too!
                    if (typeof(item) === 'object') {
                        // clear the copied referenece of nested objects
                        target[prop][index] = Object();
                        // and re do the process for nested objects
                        deepCopy(target[prop][index], item);
                    } else {
                        target[prop].push(item);
                    }
                });
            // otherwise, treat it as an object
            } else {
                // clear the copied referenece of nested objects
                target[prop] = Object();
                // and re do the process for nested objects
                deepCopy(target[prop], source[prop]);
            }
        }
    });
};

Here's a test code:

let a = {
    name: 'Human', 
    func: () => {
        console.log('Hi!');
    }, 
    prop: {
        age: 21, 
        info: {
            hasShirt: true, 
            hasHat: false
        }
    },
    mark: [89, 92, { exam: [1, 2, 3] }]
};

let b = Object();

deepCopy(b, a);

a.name = 'Alien';
a.func = () => { console.log('Wassup!'); };
a.prop.age = 1024;
a.prop.info.hasShirt = false;
a.mark[0] = 87;
a.mark[1] = 91;
a.mark[2].exam = [4, 5, 6];

console.log(a); // updated props
console.log(b);

For efficiency-related concerns, I believe this is the simplest and most efficient solution to the problem I had. I would appreciate any comments on this algorithm that could make it more efficient.

Answer 51

Use Object.create() to get the prototype and support for instanceof, and use a for() loop to get enumerable keys:

function cloneObject(source) {
    var key,value;
    var clone = Object.create(source);

    for (key in source) {
        if (source.hasOwnProperty(key) === true) {
            value = source[key];

            if (value!==null && typeof value==="object") {
                clone[key] = cloneObject(value);
            } else {
                clone[key] = value;
            }
        }
    }

    return clone;
}

Answer 52

For future reference, one can use this code

ES6:

_clone: function(obj){
    let newObj = {};
    for(let i in obj){
        if(typeof(obj[i]) === 'object' && Object.keys(obj[i]).length){
            newObj[i] = clone(obj[i]);
        } else{
            newObj[i] = obj[i];
        }
    }
    return Object.assign({},newObj);
}

ES5:

function clone(obj){
let newObj = {};
for(let i in obj){
    if(typeof(obj[i]) === 'object' && Object.keys(obj[i]).length){
        newObj[i] = clone(obj[i]);
    } else{
        newObj[i] = obj[i];
    }
}
return Object.assign({},newObj);

}

E.g

var obj ={a:{b:1,c:3},d:4,e:{f:6}}
var xc = clone(obj);
console.log(obj); //{a:{b:1,c:3},d:4,e:{f:6}}
console.log(xc); //{a:{b:1,c:3},d:4,e:{f:6}}

xc.a.b = 90;
console.log(obj); //{a:{b:1,c:3},d:4,e:{f:6}}
console.log(xc); //{a:{b:90,c:3},d:4,e:{f:6}}

Answer 53

class Handler {
  static deepCopy (obj) {
    if (Object.prototype.toString.call(obj) === '[object Array]') {
      const result = [];
      
      for (let i = 0, len = obj.length; i < len; i++) {
        result[i] = Handler.deepCopy(obj[i]);
      }
      return result;
    } else if (Object.prototype.toString.call(obj) === '[object Object]') {
      const result = {};
      for (let prop in obj) {
        result[prop] = Handler.deepCopy(obj[prop]);
      }
      return result;
    }
    return obj;
  }
}

Answer 54

Without touching the prototypical inheritance you may deep lone objects and arrays as follows;

function objectClone(o){
  var ot = Array.isArray(o);
  return o !== null && typeof o === "object" ? Object.keys(o)
                                                     .reduce((r,k) => o[k] !== null && typeof o[k] === "object" ? (r[k] = objectClone(o[k]),r)
                                                                                                                : (r[k] = o[k],r), ot ? [] : {})
                                             : o;
}
var obj = {a: 1, b: {c: 2, d: {e: 3, f: {g: 4, h: null}}}},
    arr = [1,2,[3,4,[5,6,[7]]]],
    nil = null,
  clobj = objectClone(obj),
  clarr = objectClone(arr),
  clnil = objectClone(nil);
console.log(clobj, obj === clobj);
console.log(clarr, arr === clarr);
console.log(clnil, nil === clnil);
clarr[2][2][2] = "seven";
console.log(arr, clarr);

Answer 55

What about asynchronous object cloning done by a Promise?

async function clone(thingy /**/)
{
    if(thingy instanceof Promise)
    {
        throw Error("This function cannot clone Promises.");
    }
    return thingy;
}

Answer 56

For a shallow copy there is a great, simple method introduced in ECMAScript2018 standard. It involves the use of Spread Operator :

let obj = {a : "foo", b:"bar" , c:10 , d:true , e:[1,2,3] };

let objClone = { ...obj };

I have tested it in Chrome browser, both objects are stored in different locations, so changing immediate child values in either will not change the other. Though (in the example) changing a value in e will effect both copies.

This technique is very simple and straight forward. I consider this a true Best Practice for this question once and for all.

Answer 57

I think that this is the best solution if you want to generalize your object cloning algorithm.
It can be used with or without jQuery, although I recommend leaving jQuery's extend method out if you want you the cloned object to have the same "class" as the original one.

function clone(obj){
    if(typeof(obj) == 'function')//it's a simple function
        return obj;
    //of it's not an object (but could be an array...even if in javascript arrays are objects)
    if(typeof(obj) !=  'object' || obj.constructor.toString().indexOf('Array')!=-1)
        if(JSON != undefined)//if we have the JSON obj
            try{
                return JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(obj));
            }catch(err){
                return JSON.parse('"'+JSON.stringify(obj)+'"');
            }
        else
            try{
                return eval(uneval(obj));
            }catch(err){
                return eval('"'+uneval(obj)+'"');
            }
    // I used to rely on jQuery for this, but the "extend" function returns
    //an object similar to the one cloned,
    //but that was not an instance (instanceof) of the cloned class
    /*
    if(jQuery != undefined)//if we use the jQuery plugin
        return jQuery.extend(true,{},obj);
    else//we recursivley clone the object
    */
    return (function _clone(obj){
        if(obj == null || typeof(obj) != 'object')
            return obj;
        function temp () {};
        temp.prototype = obj;
        var F = new temp;
        for(var key in obj)
            F[key] = clone(obj[key]);
        return F;
    })(obj);            
}

Answer 58

This is my solution without using any library or native javascript function.

function deepClone(obj) {
  if (typeof obj !== "object") {
    return obj;
  } else {
    let newObj =
      typeof obj === "object" && obj.length !== undefined ? [] : {};
    for (let key in obj) {
      if (key) {
        newObj[key] = deepClone(obj[key]);
      }
    }
    return newObj;
  }
}

Answer 59

Requires new-ish browsers, but...

Let's extend the native Object and get a real .extend();

Object.defineProperty(Object.prototype, 'extend', {
    enumerable: false,
    value: function(){
        var that = this;

        Array.prototype.slice.call(arguments).map(function(source){
            var props = Object.getOwnPropertyNames(source),
                i = 0, l = props.length,
                prop;

            for(; i < l; ++i){
                prop = props[i];

                if(that.hasOwnProperty(prop) && typeof(that[prop]) === 'object'){
                    that[prop] = that[prop].extend(source[prop]);
                }else{
                    Object.defineProperty(that, prop, Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor(source, prop));
                }
            }
        });

        return this;
    }
});

Just pop that in prior to any code that uses .extend() on an object.

Example:

var obj1 = {
    node1: '1',
    node2: '2',
    node3: 3
};

var obj2 = {
    node1: '4',
    node2: 5,
    node3: '6'
};

var obj3 = ({}).extend(obj1, obj2);

console.log(obj3);
// Object {node1: "4", node2: 5, node3: "6"}

Answer 60

This is a solution with recursion:

obj = {
  a: { b: { c: { d: ['1', '2'] } } },
  e: 'Saeid'
}
const Clone = function (obj) {
  
  const container = Array.isArray(obj) ? [] : {}
  const keys  = Object.keys(obj)
   
  for (let i = 0; i < keys.length; i++) {
    const key = keys[i]
    if(typeof obj[key] == 'object') {
      container[key] = Clone(obj[key])
    }
    else
      container[key] = obj[key].slice()
  }
  
  return container
}
 console.log(Clone(obj))

Answer 61

When your object is nested and it contains data object, other structured object or some property object, etc then using JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(object)) or Object.assign({}, obj) or $.extend(true, {}, obj) will not work. In that case use lodash. It is simple and easy..

var obj = {a: 25, b: {a: 1, b: 2}, c: new Date(), d: anotherNestedObject };
var A = _.cloneDeep(obj);

Now A will be your new cloned of obj without any references..

Answer 62

if you find yourself doing this type of thing regular ( eg- creating undo redo functionality ) it might be worth looking into Immutable.js

const map1 = Immutable.fromJS( { a: 1, b: 2, c: { d: 3 } } );
const map2 = map1.setIn( [ 'c', 'd' ], 50 );

console.log( `${ map1.getIn( [ 'c', 'd' ] ) } vs ${ map2.getIn( [ 'c', 'd' ] ) }` ); // "3 vs 50"

https://codepen.io/anon/pen/OBpqNE?editors=1111

Answer 63

With the proposal of the new method Object.fromEntries() that is supported on newer versions of some browsers (reference). I want to contribute with the next recursive approach:

const obj = {
  key1: {key11: "key11", key12: "key12", key13: {key131: 22}},
  key2: {key21: "key21", key22: "key22"},
  key3: "key3",
  key4: [1,2,3, {key: "value"}]
}

const cloneObj = (obj) =>
{
    if (Object(obj) !== obj)
       return obj;
    else if (Array.isArray(obj))
       return obj.map(cloneObj);

    return Object.fromEntries(Object.entries(obj).map(
        ([k,v]) => ([k, cloneObj(v)])
    ));
}

// Clone the original object.
let newObj = cloneObj(obj);

// Make changes on the original object.
obj.key1.key11 = "TEST";
obj.key3 = "TEST";
obj.key1.key13.key131 = "TEST";
obj.key4[1] = "TEST";
obj.key4[3].key = "TEST";

// Display both objects on the console.
console.log("Original object: ", obj);
console.log("Cloned object: ", newObj);

.as-console {background-color:black !important; color:lime;}
.as-console-wrapper {max-height:100% !important; top:0;}

Answer 64

As this question is having lot of attention and answers with reference to inbuilt features such as Object.assign or custom code to deep clone, i would like to share some libraries to deep clone,

1. esclone

npm install --savedev esclone https://www.npmjs.com/package/esclone

Example use in ES6:

import esclone from "esclone";

const rockysGrandFather = {
  name: "Rockys grand father",
  father: "Don't know :("
};
const rockysFather = {
  name: "Rockys Father",
  father: rockysGrandFather
};

const rocky = {
  name: "Rocky",
  father: rockysFather
};

const rockyClone = esclone(rocky);

Example use in ES5:

var esclone = require("esclone")
var foo = new String("abcd")
var fooClone = esclone.default(foo)
console.log(fooClone)
console.log(foo === fooClone)

2. deep copy

npm install deep-copy https://www.npmjs.com/package/deep-copy

Example:

var dcopy = require('deep-copy')

// deep copy object 
var copy = dcopy({a: {b: [{c: 5}]}})

// deep copy array 
var copy = dcopy([1, 2, {a: {b: 5}}])

3. clone-deep

$ npm install --save clone-deep https://www.npmjs.com/package/clone-deep

Example:

var cloneDeep = require('clone-deep');

var obj = {a: 'b'};
var arr = [obj];

var copy = cloneDeep(arr);
obj.c = 'd';

console.log(copy);
//=> [{a: 'b'}] 

console.log(arr);

Answer 65

function clone(obj) {
    var copy;

    // Handle the 3 simple types, and null or undefined
    if (null == obj || "object" != typeof obj) return obj;

    // Handle Date
    if (obj instanceof Date) {
        copy = new Date();
        copy.setTime(obj.getTime());
        return copy;
    }

    // Handle Array
    if (obj instanceof Array) {
        copy = [];
        for (var i = 0, len = obj.length; i < len; i++) {
            copy[i] = clone(obj[i]);
        }
        return copy;
    }

    // Handle Object
    if (obj instanceof Object) {
        copy = {};
        for (var attr in obj) {
            if (obj.hasOwnProperty(attr)) copy[attr] = clone(obj[attr]);
        }
        return copy;
    }

    throw new Error("Unable to copy obj! Its type isn't supported.");
}

use the following method instead of JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(obj)) because it is slower than the following method

How do I correctly clone a JavaScript object?

Answer 66

How about merging the keys of the object with its values?

function deepClone(o) {
    var keys = Object.keys(o);
    var values = Object.values(o);

    var clone = {};

    keys.forEach(function(key, i) {
        clone[key] = typeof values[i] == 'object' ? Object.create(values[i]) : values[i];
    });

    return clone;
}

Note: This method doesn't necessarily make shallow copies, but it only copies with the depth of one inner-object, meaning that when you are given something like {a: {b: {c: null}}}, it will only clone the objects that are directly inside of them, so deepClone(a.b).c is technically a reference to a.b.c, while deepClone(a).b is a clone, not a reference.

Answer 67

Cloning an object using today's JavaScript: ECMAScript 2015 (formerly known as ECMAScript 6)

var original = {a: 1};

// Method 1: New object with original assigned.
var copy1 = Object.assign({}, original);

// Method 2: New object with spread operator assignment.
var copy2 = {...original};

Old browsers may not support ECMAScript 2015. A common solution is to use a JavaScript-to-JavaScript compiler like Babel to output an ECMAScript 5 version of your JavaScript code.

As pointed out by @jim-hall, this is only a shallow copy. Properties of properties are copied as a reference: changing one would change the value in the other object/instance.