Why don't people deep clone in C# by using a JObject one-liner?

Question

I was recently looking over this question on deep cloning in C#: How do you do a deep copy of an object in .NET?

I'm not a C#/.NET expert, so if this is completely off, someone please correct me. Why aren't people suggesting doing the following?

JObject.FromObject(theObject).DeepClone().ToObject<TheObjectClass>();

The most upvoted answers are extremely verbose solutions and I'm sure it's for a good reason, so I really want to understand why this one-liner isn't valid.

@DStanley thank you, so this at least would work with all objects that can be represented in a JSON format? — jgozal, Mar 25 '21 at 19:23
Probably - but it also has the potential side-effect of having multiple copies of objects that have multiple references to them. — D Stanley, Mar 25 '21 at 19:25

score 8 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 25 '21 at 19:24

But why aren't people suggesting doing the following?
JObject.FromObject(theObject).DeepClone().ToObject<TheObjectClass>();

Because not every object can be serialized to JSON. Specifically objects with circular references, or objects where you have multiple references to the same instance.

Why don't people deep clone in C# by using a JObject one-liner?

1 Answers1