Clone - recursively copy Perl datatypes
=======================================
[](
https://travis-ci.org/garu/Clone)
[](
https://coveralls.io/r/garu/Clone?branch=master)
[](
https://metacpan.org/pod/Clone)
This module provides a `clone()` method which makes recursive
copies of nested hash, array, scalar and reference types,
including tied variables and objects.
```perl
use Clone 'clone';
my $data = {
set => [ 1 .. 50 ],
foo => {
answer => 42,
object => SomeObject->new,
},
};
my $cloned_data = clone($data);
$cloned_data->{foo}{answer} = 1;
print $cloned_data->{foo}{answer}; # '1'
print $data->{foo}{answer}; # '42'
```
You can also add it to your class:
```perl
package Foo;
use parent 'Clone';
sub new { bless {}, shift }
package main;
my $obj = Foo->new;
my $copy = $obj->clone;
```
`clone()` takes a scalar argument and duplicates it. To duplicate lists,
arrays or hashes, pass them in by reference, e.g.
```perl
my $copy = clone (\@array);
# or
my %copy = %{ clone (\%hash) };
```
See Also
--------
[Storable](
https://metacpan.org/pod/Storable)'s `dclone()` is a flexible solution for cloning variables,
albeit slower for average-sized data structures. Simple
and naive benchmarks show that Clone is faster for data structures
with 3 or fewer levels, while `dclone()` can be faster for structures
4 or more levels deep.
COPYRIGHT
---------
Copyright 2001-2019 Ray Finch. All Rights Reserved.
This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
AUTHOR
------
Ray Finch `<
[email protected]>`
Breno G. de Oliveira `<
[email protected]>` and
Florian Ragwitz `<
[email protected]>` perform routine maintenance
releases since 2012.
