How to copy observable collection

Question

I have

Observablecollection<A> aRef = new Observablecollection<A>(); bRef = aRef();  

In this case both point to same ObservableCollection. How do I make a different copy?

Answer 1

Do this:

// aRef being an Observablecollection  Observablecollection<Entity> bRef = new Observablecollection<Entity>(aRef); 

This will create an observable collection but the items are still pointing to the original items. If you need the items to point a clone rather than the original items, you need to implement and then call a cloning method.

UPDATE

If you try to add to a list and then the observable collection have the original list, just create the Observablecollection by passing the original list:

List<Entity> originalEnityList = GetThatOriginalEnityListFromSomewhere(); Observablecollection<Entity> bRef = new Observablecollection<Entity>(originalEnityList); 

Answer 2

You could implement ICloneable interface in you entity definition and then make a copy of the ObservableCollection with a internal cast. As a result you will have a cloned List without any reference to old items. Then you could create your new ObservableCollection whit the cloned List

public class YourEntity : ICloneable {     public AnyType Property { get; set; }     ....     public object Clone()     {         return MemberwiseClone();     } } 

The implementation would be

var clonedList = originalObservableCollection.Select(objEntity => (YourEntity) objEntity.Clone()).ToList();  ObservableCollection<YourEntity> clonedCollection = new ObservableCollection<YourEntity>(clonedList);