How to clone an ExpandoObject

Question

This is for a MVVM based WPF project:

I am using an ExpandoObject in a view model for a dialog, which works very nicely since it implements INotifyPropertyChanged and I can bind to properties of the object directly in XAML.

However, to account for the user manipuating data but then hitting cancel I need to make a copy of the ExpandoObject to restore the original content.

In the dialog no properties are added to the object.

How can I clone it?

Answer 1

Shallow copy:

static ExpandoObject ShallowCopy(ExpandoObject original)
{
    var clone = new ExpandoObject();

    var _original = (IDictionary<string, object>)original;
    var _clone = (IDictionary<string, object>)clone;

    foreach (var kvp in _original)
        _clone.Add(kvp);

    return clone;
}

Deep copy:

static ExpandoObject DeepCopy(ExpandoObject original)
{
    var clone = new ExpandoObject();

    var _original = (IDictionary<string, object>)original;
    var _clone = (IDictionary<string, object>)clone;

    foreach (var kvp in _original)
        _clone.Add(kvp.Key, kvp.Value is ExpandoObject ? DeepCopy((ExpandoObject)kvp.Value) : kvp.Value);

    return clone;
}