Its pretty easy to do using the org.springframework.beans.BeanUtils class provided by spring. Or the Apache Commons BeanUtils library which I believe Springs version is either based on or is the same as.
public static <T> T combine2Objects(T a, T b) throws InstantiationException, IllegalAccessException {
// would require a noargs constructor for the class, maybe you have a different way to create the result.
T result = (T) a.getClass().newInstance();
BeanUtils.copyProperties(a, result);
BeanUtils.copyProperties(b, result);
return result;
}
if you cant or dont have a noargs constructor maybe you just pass in the result
public static <T> T combine2Objects(T a, T b, T destination) {
BeanUtils.copyProperties(a, destination);
BeanUtils.copyProperties(b, destination);
return destination;
}
If you dont want null properties being copied you can use something like this:
public static void nullAwareBeanCopy(Object dest, Object source) throws IllegalAccessException, InvocationTargetException {
new BeanUtilsBean() {
@Override
public void copyProperty(Object dest, String name, Object value)
throws IllegalAccessException, InvocationTargetException {
if(value != null) {
super.copyProperty(dest, name, value);
}
}
}.copyProperties(dest, source);
}
Nested object solution
Heres a bit more robust solution. It supports nested object copying, objects 1+ level deep will no longer be copied by reference, instead Nested objects will be cloned or their properties be copied individually.
/**
* Copies all properties from sources to destination, does not copy null values and any nested objects will attempted to be
* either cloned or copied into the existing object. This is recursive. Should not cause any infinite recursion.
* @param dest object to copy props into (will mutate)
* @param sources
* @param <T> dest
* @return
* @throws IllegalAccessException
* @throws InvocationTargetException
*/
public static <T> T copyProperties(T dest, Object... sources) throws IllegalAccessException, InvocationTargetException {
// to keep from any chance infinite recursion lets limit each object to 1 instance at a time in the stack
final List<Object> lookingAt = new ArrayList<>();
BeanUtilsBean recursiveBeanUtils = new BeanUtilsBean() {
/**
* Check if the class name is an internal one
* @param name
* @return
*/
private boolean isInternal(String name) {
return name.startsWith("java.") || name.startsWith("javax.")
|| name.startsWith("com.sun.") || name.startsWith("javax.")
|| name.startsWith("oracle.");
}
/**
* Override to ensure that we dont end up in infinite recursion
* @param dest
* @param orig
* @throws IllegalAccessException
* @throws InvocationTargetException
*/
@Override
public void copyProperties(Object dest, Object orig) throws IllegalAccessException, InvocationTargetException {
try {
// if we have an object in our list, that means we hit some sort of recursion, stop here.
if(lookingAt.stream().anyMatch(o->o == dest)) {
return; // recursion detected
}
lookingAt.add(dest);
super.copyProperties(dest, orig);
} finally {
lookingAt.remove(dest);
}
}
@Override
public void copyProperty(Object dest, String name, Object value)
throws IllegalAccessException, InvocationTargetException {
// dont copy over null values
if (value != null) {
// attempt to check if the value is a pojo we can clone using nested calls
if(!value.getClass().isPrimitive() && !value.getClass().isSynthetic() && !isInternal(value.getClass().getName())) {
try {
Object prop = super.getPropertyUtils().getProperty(dest, name);
// get current value, if its null then clone the value and set that to the value
if(prop == null) {
super.setProperty(dest, name, super.cloneBean(value));
} else {
// get the destination value and then recursively call
copyProperties(prop, value);
}
} catch (NoSuchMethodException e) {
return;
} catch (InstantiationException e) {
throw new RuntimeException("Nested property could not be cloned.", e);
}
} else {
super.copyProperty(dest, name, value);
}
}
}
};
for(Object source : sources) {
recursiveBeanUtils.copyProperties(dest, source);
}
return dest;
}
Its kinda quick and dirty but works well. Since it does use recursion and the potential is there for infinite recursion I did place in a safety against.
