Copy an object reference..?

[toto]

In theory..I'd like to do the following..copy object a's properties over to object b, then be able to modify b's properties without affecting object a. I'm just using a Panel for the example, basically I'd like to do this with any class..

	Panel a = new Panel(x);
	a.Tag = 0;

	//Real code
	Panel a = a;

	//Theory code (wrong syntax but is there a way to do this?)
	Panel b = new b;

	b.Tag = 1;

	int ia = (int) a.Tag;
	int ib = (int) b.Tag;

	//real output ia = 0
	//real output ib = 0

	//theory output ia = 0
	//theory output ib = 1

Specifically I have a TabControl and I want to define a Tab Page and whats on it, but I'd like to be able to copy the tab page and create a new one so it has the same design/controls on it.

I'm sure I can't have the same exact control on the form at the same time so I could do Form.Controls.Remove for one then add the other? Or maybe I'm going the wrong way on this...


Thanks,
Mitchel

[CornedBee]

Try Clone.
Or is it called something else in C#? There is some function like that, it's called clone in Java, so I guess it would be Clone in C#.

[CornedBee]

Try Clone.
Or is it called something else in C#? There is some function like that, it's called clone in Java, so I guess it would be Clone in C#.

[CornedBee]

Try Clone.
Or is it called something else in C#? There is some function like that, it's called clone in Java, so I guess it would be Clone in C#.

[hellswraith]

I haven't checked, but I thought it was Copy() in .Net instead of clone....not sure though. Will check later.

[Genie]

I have used it and it is object.Clone().

i.e. then you would be creating a copy of the object rather than a reference to it.

Some special types i.e. SortedList may not have a .Clone method in which case you have to create your own by extending the class.

[toto]

Hey thanks guys, the clone doesn't work though or at least it's not on the object i'm trying to clone, I can try to figure out how to clone it..but I'm no expert, maybe theres another way?

Thanks,
Mitchel

[toto]

I implemented .Clone() using return this.MemberWiseClone(); however it doesn't work properly...

Perhaps I'm going about this the wrong way..

Basically I have a list of mail boxes and i want to double click one and open up a new tab page to administrate it.. and I want to be able to open as many mail boxes as I want at the same time and modify each.

Perhaps I should just keep it to one mail box at a time? I'd really rather not, I think this is a good flow for the application.

Thanks,
Mitchel

[sunburnt]

How about this: (this is kind of the way the windows form designer works)

public class myPanel : Panel
{
    public myPanel()
    { 
         // set our default properties here.
         // if the constructor takes an argument,
         // you'll need to change this.
         Tag = "foo";
         Caption = "123";
    }
}

Panel a = (Panel)(new MyPanel());
Panel b = (Panel)(new MyPanel());

this is assuming you don't want to change the default properties at run time.

[toto]

I like the idea, it might be a bit odd to use though. The panel..hmm if I did that It would be hard to edit the text boxes and fields on the panel, but I see where I can go with this.

I'll definately look into it. Thanks for the idea!

Mitchel