How to clone a "Control"

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Rob Stevenson - 22 Feb 2007 01:37 GMT

Does anyone know how to do this accurately. I really only want to clone the
design-time properties which should make the task easier. I've searched high
and low however and still can't find a problem-free solution. Even (ad-hoc)
solutions posted by MSFT employees have problems. For instance, if you
simply copy all serializable properties, you may eventually receive an
"Object does not match target type" exception. In my case, this occurs when
I encounter (and clone) the "Location" property due to the fact that the
"Site" property was cloned earlier. If I clone "Location" first however
(before "Site"), it works fine. There must be a clean way to do this. Can
anyone offer any insight. Thanks.

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RobinS - 22 Feb 2007 08:33 GMT

You can create the control using the designer, then copy the code and
remove the control, and then you can put the code in the code window and
create the control exactly the same way every time. Would that work for
you?
Robin S.
-------------------------------

> Does anyone know how to do this accurately. I really only want to clone
> the design-time properties which should make the task easier. I've
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> "Location" first however (before "Site"), it works fine. There must be a
> clean way to do this. Can anyone offer any insight. Thanks.

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Rob Stevenson - 22 Feb 2007 12:47 GMT

> You can create the control using the designer, then copy the code and
> remove the control, and then you can put the code in the code window and
> create the control exactly the same way every time. Would that work for
> you?

Thanks. I wish it were that easy however :) This is being done at runtime on
a machine where VS isn't even installed. I need to generically clone an
arbitrary control that I'm not familiar with ahead of time. A clone function
taking a "Control" argument and returning the cloned control is what I'm
after.

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Morten Wennevik [C# MVP] - 22 Feb 2007 18:03 GMT

Hi Rob,

There may be better ways, but this may work

private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    TextBox t = (TextBox)CloneObject(textBox1);
}

private object CloneObject(object o)
{
    Type t = o.GetType();
    PropertyInfo[] properties = t.GetProperties();

    Object p = t.InvokeMember("", System.Reflection.BindingFlags.CreateInstance, null, o, null);

    foreach(PropertyInfo pi in properties)
    {
        if(pi.CanWrite)
        {
            pi.SetValue(p, pi.GetValue(o, null), null);
        }
    }

    return p;
}

This code should create a new object of the same type and any writable property will get their values copied.
There may be far better ways though.

> Does anyone know how to do this accurately. I really only want to clone the
> design-time properties which should make the task easier. I've searched high
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> (before "Site"), it works fine. There must be a clean way to do this. Can
> anyone offer any insight. Thanks.

Signature

Happy coding!
Morten Wennevik [C# MVP]

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How to clone a "Control"

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