MemberwiseClone() Method – Object Class Member

Like finalize() method, we also come to see memberwiseclone() method in almost every class ,as protected instance methods . It is inherited from Object class, which is the mother class of .NET classes..

By definition, memberwiseclone() method "creates a shallow copy of the current Object."

A shallow copy of an Object is a copy of the Object only. If the Object contains references to other objects, the shallow copy will not create copies of the referred objects. It will refer to the original objects instead. On the other hand, a deep copy of an object creates a copy of the object and a copy of everything directly or indirectly referenced by that object.

This can be explained using an example i.e, suppose X is an Object with references to the objects A and B, and the object A also has a reference to an object M, a shallow copy of X is an object Y, which also has references to objects A and B. On the other hand, a deep copy of X is an object Y with direct references to objects C and D, and an indirect reference to object N, where C is a copy of A, D is a copy of B, and N is a copy of M.

In C Sharp we write as:
protected object MemberwiseClone();

In VB.NET we, write as:
Protected Function MemberwiseClone() As Object

In Managed C++ we, write as:
protected: Object* MemberwiseClone();

This method cannot be overridden; a subclass should implement the ICloneable interface if a shallow copy is not appropriate.The ICloneable interface contains one member, Clone, which is intended to support cloning beyond that supplied by MemberwiseClone.

It is to be remembered that Object Class contains not only memberwise clone method but, there are other method also, like object self constructor, finalize method and some public instance methods.

Happy .NETing!
Regards.