Clone Method

Overview

The Clone method creates a new data table instance and copies the schema and rows from an existing table. Internally, it:

• Creates a new DataTable instance.
• Copies TableName.
• Clones column metadata using CloneColumnsFrom.
• Clones rows using CloneRowsFrom.

The returned table is independent from the source table (a separate instance), but it contains the same schema and data.

Declaration

/// <summary>
/// Clones data table
/// </summary>
/// <param name="dataTable">Data table</param>
/// <returns>Cloned data table</returns>
public static IDataTable? Clone(this IDataTable? dataTable)

Namespace and Assembly

Namespace: PocoDataSet.Extensions
Assembly: PocoDataSet.Extensions.dll

Behavior

• If dataTable is null, returns null.
• Creates a new DataTable instance.
• Copies TableName from the source table.
• Calls CloneColumnsFrom(dataTable) to copy column metadata.
• Calls CloneRowsFrom(dataTable) to copy rows.

Usage Example

// 1. Create an empty data set
IDataSet dataSet = DataSetFactory.CreateDataSet();

// 2. Create an empty Department table
IDataTable departmentDataTable = dataSet.AddNewTable("Department");
departmentDataTable.AddColumn("Id", DataTypeNames.INT32);
departmentDataTable.AddColumn("Name", DataTypeNames.STRING);

// 3. Add several rows to the Department table
IDataRow departmentDataRow = departmentDataTable.AddNewRow();
departmentDataRow["Id"] = 1;
departmentDataRow["Name"] = "Customer Service";

departmentDataRow = departmentDataTable.AddNewRow();
departmentDataRow["Id"] = 2;
departmentDataRow["Name"] = "Financial";

// 4. Clone the table (schema + rows)
IDataTable? clonedDepartmentDataTable = departmentDataTable.Clone();

Notes

• This method clones both columns and rows. If you need only schema cloning, use CloneColumnsFrom.
• If you need to control which rows are cloned, consider cloning schema first and then copying a filtered subset of rows.

 

Table of Content POCO DataSet DataTable Extensions Group DataTable Members

 

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Business Process Programming in .Net
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