CloneRowsFrom Method

Overview

The CloneRowsFrom method clones all rows from a source table into a destination (cloned) table. It creates a new IDataRow instance for each source row and adds it to the destination table.

This method is intended to be used after the destination table schema (columns) has already been cloned (for example, by calling CloneColumnsFrom). It does not clone column metadata by itself.

Declaration

/// <summary>
/// Clones rows from data table
/// </summary>
/// <param name="dataTable">Data table</param>
/// <param name="sourceDataTable">Source data table</param>
public static void CloneRowsFrom(this IDataTable? dataTable, IDataTable? sourceDataTable)

Namespace and Assembly

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

Behavior

• If clonedDataTable is null or dataTable is null, returns immediately.
• Iterates through all rows of dataTable.Rows and for each row:
  • Creates an empty target row with the same set of keys (column names) as the source row.
  • Copies values into the target row, attempting to clone certain reference types to avoid aliasing.
  • Adds the target row to clonedDataTable via AddRow.

Value Cloning Rules

When copying values from the source row to the target row, the method attempts to clone values using simple rules:

• Null: copied as null.
• Value types (int, long, decimal, DateTime, bool, etc.): copied by value.
• String: copied as-is (strings are immutable).
• byte[]: cloned into a new array to avoid sharing the same buffer.
• Arrays: a new array is created and each element is copied/cloned recursively.
• ICloneable: cloned by calling Clone().
• Fallback: if no cloning strategy is available, the original reference is copied (shallow copy).

Usage Example

The following example shows how to clone schema and rows from the Department table into a new table:

// 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 rows to the Department table
IDataRow departmentDataRow1 = departmentDataTable.AddNewRow();
departmentDataRow1["Id"] = 1;
departmentDataRow1["Name"] = "Customer Service";

IDataRow departmentDataRow2 = departmentDataTable.AddNewRow();
departmentDataRow2["Id"] = 2;
departmentDataRow2["Name"] = "Finance";

// 4. Create an empty table and add schema to it
IDataTable clonedDepartmentDataTable = new DataTable();
clonedDepartmentDataTable.TableName = departmentDataTable.TableName;
clonedDepartmentDataTable.CloneColumnsFrom(departmentDataTable);

// 5. Clone rows
clonedDepartmentDataTable.CloneRowsFrom(departmentDataTable);

Notes

• This method does not copy row state. Rows are inserted into the destination table using AddRow, and the resulting row state is determined by the destination table and row implementation.
• The value cloning rules avoid aliasing for common mutable types (notably byte[] and arrays), but they do not guarantee a deep clone for arbitrary object graphs.

 

Table of Content POCO DataSet DataTable Extensions Group DataTable Members

 

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Business Process Programming in .Net
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