How can I clone (generate code) all fields of one class into another?

Question

I am writing a WCF service and I want to use DataTransferObjects that basically clone all fields of my classes. For example I have a class Person

class Person
{
    public int Id;
    public string Name;
    public Person()
    {
        //Some complex stuff here
    }
}

class PersonDTO
{
    //Copy all public fields and properties of Person
    public int Id;
    public string Name;
}

Is there a way to generate my DTO class based on other class? A code-snippet or something like that?

I am not trying to copy the values of the fields. I want to generate a class with same fields as the "Parent" class. But I don't want to inherit my DTO class

Because I don't want `PersonDTO` changed if `Person` gets changed — Anarion, Mar 01 '14 at 09:27
Yeah, but inheritance will just get the members, properties, and functions in the child class. The values that the members and properties hold will not be copied. — dhrumilap, Mar 01 '14 at 09:28
You are looking for a code generator. Sounds like a job for visual studio macro. Are you gonna use library in mapping between DTO and business object? — Panu Oksala, Mar 01 '14 at 09:33
@Mino, yes, I am looking for a code generator (and I stated it in the question), the question is - which code generator should I use (and how). — Anarion, Mar 01 '14 at 09:37
There is one sort of answer for this: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/832578/generate-dtos-from-object — Panu Oksala, Mar 01 '14 at 09:43

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 01 '14 at 09:47

1

Take a look at T4 templates, that will help you to generate code. It will not be that hard, but not easy too. Once you done for single class you can re-use it.

answered Mar 01 '14 at 09:47

Sriram Sakthivel

72,067
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Sergey Berezovskiy · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-01T09:54:42.597

You can use T4 templates to generate DTOs from your entities. Here is article Code generation with T4, Entities to DTOs example which have sample project attached for generating DTOs from entities.

Main idea is providing path to assembly with entities:

var entitiesAssembly = @"bin\Debug\EntitiesToDTO.dll";

Then getting all entity types from that assembly:

var typesToRegister = 
    from t in LoadProjectAssembly(entitiesAssembly).GetExportedTypes()
    where t.Namespace == entitiesNamespace && t.IsClass && !t.IsAbstract
    select t;

And processing them in a loop:

<#
foreach (var type in typesToRegister.Where(t => t.IsClass && !t.IsAbstract))
{#>
   [DataContract(Name="<#= ConvertToCamelCase(type.Name) #>]
   public partial class <#= GetDTOClassName(type.Name) #>
   {
      <# foreach (var property in type.GetProperties())
      {#>
         // analyze property type
         // and generate appropriate DataMember property
      <#}#>
   }
<#}#>

Do you get the Assembly from an static path in **LoadProjectAssembly**? — Erick Asto Oblitas, Aug 17 '16 at 12:59

score 0 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:51

0

Sounds to me that what you're looking for is deep cloning. You basically serialize the object you want to copy, then deserialize the result.

Take a look here: Deep cloning objects

edited May 23 '17 at 11:51

Community

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1

answered Mar 01 '14 at 09:27

Omri Aharon

16,959
5
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1

Not really. I have EF classes which I don't want to expose via WCF, and I want to create DTO objects which have less firlds, and they will be exposed via WCF contract. – Anarion Mar 01 '14 at 09:31

How can I clone (generate code) all fields of one class into another?

3 Answers3