Clone(3)

NAME
Clone - recursively copy Perl datatypes

SYNOPSIS
  package Foo;
  use parent 'Clone';

  package main;
  my $original = Foo->new;
  $copy = $original->clone;

  # or

  use Clone qw(clone);

  $a = { 'foo' => 'bar', 'move' => 'zig' };
  $b = [ 'alpha', 'beta', 'gamma', 'vlissides' ];
  $c = Foo->new;

  $d = clone($a);
  $e = clone($b);
  $f = clone($c);

DESCRIPTION
This module provides a clone() method which makes recursive copies of nested hash, array, scalar and reference types, including tied variables and objects.

clone() takes a scalar argument and duplicates it. To duplicate lists, arrays or hashes, pass them in by reference. e.g.

    my $copy = clone (\@array);

    # or

    my %copy = %{ clone (\%hash) };

SEE ALSO
Storable's dclone() is a flexible solution for cloning variables, albeit slower for average-sized data structures. Simple and naive benchmarks show that Clone is faster for data structures with 3 or less levels, while dclone() can be faster for structures 4 or more levels deep.

COPYRIGHT
Copyright 2001-2012 Ray Finch. All Rights Reserved.

This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

AUTHOR
Ray Finch "<rdf@cpan.org>"

Breno G. de Oliveira "<garu@cpan.org>" and Florian Ragwitz "<rafl@debian.org>" perform routine maintenance releases since 2012.