Clone Object Without Reference JavaScript

How do I correctly clone a JavaScript object?

2022 update

There's a new JS standard called structured cloning. It works in many browsers (see Can I Use).

const clone = structuredClone(object);

Old answer

To do this for any object in JavaScript will not be simple or straightforward. You will run into the problem of erroneously picking up attributes from the object's prototype that should be left in the prototype and not copied to the new instance. If, for instance, you are adding a clone method to Object.prototype, as some answers depict, you will need to explicitly skip that attribute. But what if there are other additional methods added to Object.prototype, or other intermediate prototypes, that you don't know about? In that case, you will copy attributes you shouldn't, so you need to detect unforeseen, non-local attributes with the hasOwnProperty method.

In addition to non-enumerable attributes, you'll encounter a tougher problem when you try to copy objects that have hidden properties. For example, prototype is a hidden property of a function. Also, an object's prototype is referenced with the attribute __proto__, which is also hidden, and will not be copied by a for/in loop iterating over the source object's attributes. I think __proto__ might be specific to Firefox's JavaScript interpreter and it may be something different in other browsers, but you get the picture. Not everything is enumerable. You can copy a hidden attribute if you know its name, but I don't know of any way to discover it automatically.

Yet another snag in the quest for an elegant solution is the problem of setting up the prototype inheritance correctly. If your source object's prototype is Object, then simply creating a new general object with {} will work, but if the source's prototype is some descendant of Object, then you are going to be missing the additional members from that prototype which you skipped using the hasOwnProperty filter, or which were in the prototype, but weren't enumerable in the first place. One solution might be to call the source object's constructor property to get the initial copy object and then copy over the attributes, but then you still will not get non-enumerable attributes. For example, a Date object stores its data as a hidden member:

function clone(obj) {
    if (null == obj || "object" != typeof obj) return obj;
    var copy = obj.constructor();
    for (var attr in obj) {
        if (obj.hasOwnProperty(attr)) copy[attr] = obj[attr];
    }
    return copy;
}

var d1 = new Date();

/* Executes function after 5 seconds. */
setTimeout(function(){
    var d2 = clone(d1);
    alert("d1 = " + d1.toString() + "\nd2 = " + d2.toString());
}, 5000);

The date string for d1 will be 5 seconds behind that of d2. A way to make one Date the same as another is by calling the setTime method, but that is specific to the Date class. I don't think there is a bullet-proof general solution to this problem, though I would be happy to be wrong!

When I had to implement general deep copying I ended up compromising by assuming that I would only need to copy a plain Object, Array, Date, String, Number, or Boolean. The last 3 types are immutable, so I could perform a shallow copy and not worry about it changing. I further assumed that any elements contained in Object or Array would also be one of the 6 simple types in that list. This can be accomplished with code like the following:

function clone(obj) {
    var copy;

    // Handle the 3 simple types, and null or undefined
    if (null == obj || "object" != typeof obj) return obj;

    // Handle Date
    if (obj instanceof Date) {
        copy = new Date();
        copy.setTime(obj.getTime());
        return copy;
    }

    // Handle Array
    if (obj instanceof Array) {
        copy = [];
        for (var i = 0, len = obj.length; i < len; i++) {
            copy[i] = clone(obj[i]);
        }
        return copy;
    }

    // Handle Object
    if (obj instanceof Object) {
        copy = {};
        for (var attr in obj) {
            if (obj.hasOwnProperty(attr)) copy[attr] = clone(obj[attr]);
        }
        return copy;
    }

    throw new Error("Unable to copy obj! Its type isn't supported.");
}

The above function will work adequately for the 6 simple types I mentioned, as long as the data in the objects and arrays form a tree structure. That is, there isn't more than one reference to the same data in the object. For example:

// This would be cloneable:
var tree = {
    "left"  : { "left" : null, "right" : null, "data" : 3 },
    "right" : null,
    "data"  : 8
};

// This would kind-of work, but you would get 2 copies of the 
// inner node instead of 2 references to the same copy
var directedAcylicGraph = {
    "left"  : { "left" : null, "right" : null, "data" : 3 },
    "data"  : 8
};
directedAcyclicGraph["right"] = directedAcyclicGraph["left"];

// Cloning this would cause a stack overflow due to infinite recursion:
var cyclicGraph = {
    "left"  : { "left" : null, "right" : null, "data" : 3 },
    "data"  : 8
};
cyclicGraph["right"] = cyclicGraph;

It will not be able to handle any JavaScript object, but it may be sufficient for many purposes as long as you don't assume that it will just work for anything you throw at it.

What is the most efficient way to deep clone an object in JavaScript?

Native deep cloning

There's now a JS standard called "structured cloning", that works experimentally in Node 11 and later, will land in browsers, and which has polyfills for existing systems.

structuredClone(value)

If needed, loading the polyfill first:

import structuredClone from '@ungap/structured-clone';

See this answer for more details.

Older answers

Fast cloning with data loss - JSON.parse/stringify

If you do not use Dates, functions, undefined, Infinity, RegExps, Maps, Sets, Blobs, FileLists, ImageDatas, sparse Arrays, Typed Arrays or other complex types within your object, a very simple one liner to deep clone an object is:

JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(object))

const a = {
  string: 'string',
  number: 123,
  bool: false,
  nul: null,
  date: new Date(),  // stringified
  undef: undefined,  // lost
  inf: Infinity,  // forced to 'null'
  re: /.*/,  // lost
}
console.log(a);
console.log(typeof a.date);  // Date object
const clone = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(a));
console.log(clone);
console.log(typeof clone.date);  // result of .toISOString()

Is this a good way to clone an object in ES6?

This is good for shallow cloning. The object spread is a standard part of ECMAScript 2018.

For deep cloning you'll need a different solution.

const clone = {...original} to shallow clone

const newobj = {...original, prop: newOne} to immutably add another prop to the original and store as a new object.

How can I clone a JavaScript object except for one key?

There is a Destructuring assignment syntax in JavaScript that can be used

let obj = {a: 1, b: 2, c: 3, z:26};
let {b, ...rest} = obj;

// skips the "Unused variable" warning
let {b: _, ...rest} = obj;

// removes property based on the dynamic key
const dynamicKey = "b";
let {[dynamicKey]: _, ...rest} = obj;

Modern browsers already support it out of the box.
See: JavaScript operator: Destructuring assignment: Rest in objects

For old browser versions there is an option to use Babel to support destructuring assignment. It will be transpiled into:

"use strict";

function _objectWithoutProperties(obj, keys) {
  var target = {};
  for (var i in obj) {
    if (keys.indexOf(i) >= 0) continue;
    if (!Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(obj, i)) continue;
    target[i] = obj[i];
  }
  return target;
}

var x = { a: 1, b: 2, c: 3, z: 26 };
var b = x.b;

var y = _objectWithoutProperties(x, ["b"]);

How to copy JavaScript object to new variable NOT by reference?

I've found that the following works if you're not using jQuery and only interested in cloning simple objects (see comments).

JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(json_original));

Documentation

• JSON.parse()
• JSON.stringify()

typescript - cloning object

Solving The Specific Issue

You can use a type assertion to tell the compiler that you know better:

public clone(): any {
    var cloneObj = new (this.constructor() as any);
    for (var attribut in this) {
        if (typeof this[attribut] === "object") {
            cloneObj[attribut] = this[attribut].clone();
        } else {
            cloneObj[attribut] = this[attribut];
        }
    }
    return cloneObj;
}

Cloning

As of 2022, there is a proposal to allow structuredClone to deep copy many types.

const copy = structuredClone(value)

There are some limitations on what kind of thing you can use this on.

Bear in mind that sometimes it is better to write your own mapping - rather than being totally dynamic. However, there are a few "cloning" tricks you can use that give you different effects.

I will use the following code for all the subsequent examples:

class Example {
  constructor(public type: string) {

  }
}

class Customer {
  constructor(public name: string, public example: Example) {

  }

  greet() {
    return 'Hello ' + this.name;
  }
}

var customer = new Customer('David', new Example('DavidType'));

---

Option 1: Spread

Properties: Yes

Methods: No

Deep Copy: No

var clone = { ...customer };

alert(clone.name + ' ' + clone.example.type); // David DavidType
//alert(clone.greet()); // Not OK

clone.name = 'Steve';
clone.example.type = 'SteveType';

alert(customer.name + ' ' + customer.example.type); // David SteveType

---

Option 2: Object.assign

Properties: Yes

Methods: No

Deep Copy: No

var clone = Object.assign({}, customer);

alert(clone.name + ' ' + clone.example.type); // David DavidType
alert(clone.greet()); // Not OK, although compiler won't spot it

clone.name = 'Steve';
clone.example.type = 'SteveType';

alert(customer.name + ' ' + customer.example.type); // David SteveType

---

Option 3: Object.create

Properties: Inherited

Methods: Inherited

Deep Copy: Shallow Inherited (deep changes affect both original and clone)

var clone = Object.create(customer);
    
alert(clone.name + ' ' + clone.example.type); // David DavidType
alert(clone.greet()); // OK

customer.name = 'Misha';
customer.example = new Example("MishaType");

// clone sees changes to original 
alert(clone.name + ' ' + clone.example.type); // Misha MishaType

clone.name = 'Steve';
clone.example.type = 'SteveType';

// original sees changes to clone
alert(customer.name + ' ' + customer.example.type); // Misha SteveType

---

Option 4: Deep Copy Function

Properties: Yes

Methods: No

Deep Copy: Yes

function deepCopy(obj) {
    var copy;

    // Handle the 3 simple types, and null or undefined
    if (null == obj || "object" != typeof obj) return obj;

    // Handle Date
    if (obj instanceof Date) {
        copy = new Date();
        copy.setTime(obj.getTime());
        return copy;
    }

    // Handle Array
    if (obj instanceof Array) {
        copy = [];
        for (var i = 0, len = obj.length; i < len; i++) {
            copy[i] = deepCopy(obj[i]);
        }
        return copy;
    }

    // Handle Object
    if (obj instanceof Object) {
        copy = {};
        for (var attr in obj) {
            if (obj.hasOwnProperty(attr)) copy[attr] = deepCopy(obj[attr]);
        }
        return copy;
    }

    throw new Error("Unable to copy obj! Its type isn't supported.");
}

var clone = deepCopy(customer) as Customer;

alert(clone.name + ' ' + clone.example.type); // David DavidType
// alert(clone.greet()); // Not OK - not really a customer

clone.name = 'Steve';
clone.example.type = 'SteveType';

alert(customer.name + ' ' + customer.example.type); // David DavidType

Shallow copy JavaScript object without references

You could loop through the keys of the object using for...in. If the value is an object, set the key to null in expected, else set the value in expected to the value from source

const source = {  nr: 1,  str: 'ok',  obj: {    uhOh: 'kill me'  },  arr: ['well ok', {    uhOh: 'uhOh'  }],}
const expected = {};
for (const key in source) {  if (typeof source[key] === 'object')    expected[key] = null  else    expected[key] = source[key]}
console.log(expected)

Modifying a copy of a JavaScript object is causing the original object to change

It is clear that you have some misconceptions of what the statement var tempMyObj = myObj; does.

In JavaScript objects are passed and assigned by reference (more accurately the value of a reference), so tempMyObj and myObj are both references to the same object.

Here is a simplified illustration that may help you visualize what is happening

// [Object1]<--------- myObj

var tempMyObj = myObj;

// [Object1]<--------- myObj
//         ^ 
//         |
//         ----------- tempMyObj

As you can see after the assignment, both references are pointing to the same object.

You need to create a copy if you need to modify one and not the other.

// [Object1]<--------- myObj

const tempMyObj = Object.assign({}, myObj);

// [Object1]<--------- myObj
// [Object2]<--------- tempMyObj

Old Answer:

Here are a couple of other ways of creating a copy of an object

Since you are already using jQuery:

var newObject = jQuery.extend(true, {}, myObj);

With vanilla JavaScript

function clone(obj) {
    if (null == obj || "object" != typeof obj) return obj;
    var copy = obj.constructor();
    for (var attr in obj) {
        if (obj.hasOwnProperty(attr)) copy[attr] = obj[attr];
    }
    return copy;
}

var newObject = clone(myObj);

See here and here

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