functions/Copy-Object.ps1
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.NOTES There is no PowerShell function to make a deep copy. Clone() function for hashtables does only a shallow copy. Reference has to be used here to handle null or empty objects. .DESCRIPTION This function writes a deep copy of an input object to a reference passed. If original object is null, then null will be returned. Otherwise object is copied via memory stream. .PARAMETER Original It is an object that will be copied. It can be null. .PARAMETER DeepClone It is a reference to an existing object. This object will become a deep copy of original object passed to this function. [ref] is used as PowerShell returns all non-captures stream output, not just argument of the return statement. e.g. it will not return empty array, but null instead. .EXAMPLE $clone = $null Copy-Object -Original $original -DeepClone ([ref]$clone) #> function Copy-Object { [CmdletBinding()] Param ( [Parameter(Mandatory=$false)] $Original, [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)] [ref] $DeepClone ) if($null -eq $Original) { $DeepClone.Value = $null } else { $memStream = new-object IO.MemoryStream $formatter = new-object Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter $formatter.Serialize($memStream, $Original) $memStream.Position = 0 $DeepClone.Value = $formatter.Deserialize($memStream) $memStream.Close() } } |