Sometime ago, I read about the proposal of the new method Object.fromEntries() that is supported on newer versions of some browsers (reference). While reading about it, I had in mind the idea of use this method to deep-clone an object in replacement of using JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(obj)). So far, I have come with the next recursive approach that from my point of view appears to work.
const obj = {
key1: {key11: "key11", key12: "key12", key13: {key131: 22}},
key2: {key21: "key21", key22: "key22"},
key3: "key3",
key4: [1,2,3,4]
}
const cloneObj = (obj) =>
{
if (typeof obj !== "object")
return obj;
else if (Array.isArray(obj))
return obj.slice();
return Object.fromEntries(Object.entries(obj).map(
([k,v]) => ([k, cloneObj(v)])
));
}
// Clone the original object.
let newObj = cloneObj(obj);
// Make changes on the original object.
obj.key1.key11 = "TEST";
obj.key3 = "TEST";
obj.key1.key13.key131 = "TEST";
obj.key4[1] = "TEST";
// Display both objects on the console.
console.log("Original object: ", obj);
console.log("Cloned object: ", newObj);
.as-console {background-color:black !important; color:lime;}
.as-console-wrapper {max-height:100% !important; top:0;}
However, I'm in doubt if I'm not missing something to accomplish the deep-clone of an object. So my questions are:
1) I'm missing something important in order to accomplish the deep-clone of an object?
2) In the case the approach is all right, do you believe this can performs better than using JSON.parse() and JSON.stringify()?
Thanks in advance!
Here is the updated version with the feedback provided on the answers:
const obj = {
key1: {key11: "key11", key12: "key12", key13: {key131: 22}},
key2: {key21: "key21", key22: "key22"},
key3: "key3",
key4: [1,2,3,{key: "value"}]
}
const cloneObj = (obj) =>
{
if (Object(obj) !== obj)
return obj;
else if (Array.isArray(obj))
return obj.map(cloneObj);
return Object.fromEntries(Object.entries(obj).map(
([k,v]) => ([k, cloneObj(v)])
));
}
// Clone the original object.
let newObj = cloneObj(obj);
// Make changes on the original object.
obj.key1.key11 = "TEST";
obj.key3 = "TEST";
obj.key1.key13.key131 = "TEST";
obj.key4[1] = "TEST";
obj.key4[3].key = "TEST";
// Display both objects on the console.
console.log("Original object: ", obj);
console.log("Cloned object: ", newObj);
.as-console {background-color:black !important; color:lime;}
.as-console-wrapper {max-height:100% !important; top:0;}
Added a performance comparison in relation to my second question:
Tested on Firefox 66.0.3 (64bits):
Test_JSON: 1923.000ms
Test_cloneObj: 2047.000ms
Tested on Chrome 73.0.3683.103 (64 bits):
Test_JSON: 2276.560ms
Test_cloneObj: 1903.675ms
const cloneObj = (obj) =>
{
if (Object(obj) !== obj)
return obj;
else if (Array.isArray(obj))
return obj.map(cloneObj);
return Object.fromEntries(Object.entries(obj).map(
([k,v]) => ([k, cloneObj(v)])
));
}
// Generate an object.
const getRandom = (min, max) => Math.floor(Math.random() * (max - min) + min);
let obj = {};
for (let i = 0; i < 100000; i++)
{
obj["Array" + i] = Array.from({length: 100}, () => getRandom(0, 1000));
obj["Obj" + i] = {"key": getRandom(0, 1000)};
obj["Const" + i] = "some_string";
}
// Test performance on JSON.parse()/stringify()
console.time("Test_JSON");
let obj1 = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(obj));
console.timeEnd("Test_JSON");
// Test performance on cloneObj().
console.time("Test_cloneObj");
let obj2 = cloneObj(obj);
console.timeEnd("Test_cloneObj");
.as-console {background-color:black !important; color:lime;}
.as-console-wrapper {max-height:100% !important; top:0;}
You are missing one thing:
else if (Array.isArray(obj))
return obj.slice();
This will return a shallow copy of the array. If the array contains objects, those underlying objects will not be cloned:
const obj = [
['foo']
];
const cloneObj = (obj) =>
{
if (typeof obj !== "object")
return obj;
else if (Array.isArray(obj))
return obj.slice();
return Object.fromEntries(Object.entries(obj).map(
([k,v]) => ([k, cloneObj(v)])
));
}
// Clone the original object.
let newObj = cloneObj(obj);
// Make changes on the original object.
obj[0][0] = 'bar';
// Display both objects on the console.
console.log("Original object: ", obj);
console.log("Cloned object: ", newObj);
.as-console {background-color:black !important; color:lime;}
.as-console-wrapper {max-height:100% !important; top:0;}
To fix it, return obj.map(cloneObj); instead:
const obj = [
['foo']
];
const cloneObj = (obj) =>
{
if (typeof obj !== "object")
return obj;
else if (Array.isArray(obj))
return obj.map(cloneObj);
return Object.fromEntries(Object.entries(obj).map(
([k,v]) => ([k, cloneObj(v)])
));
}
// Clone the original object.
let newObj = cloneObj(obj);
// Make changes on the original object.
obj[0][0] = 'bar';
// Display both objects on the console.
console.log("Original object: ", obj);
console.log("Cloned object: ", newObj);
.as-console {background-color:black !important; color:lime;}
.as-console-wrapper {max-height:100% !important; top:0;}
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