go-clone: Clone any Go data structure deeply and thoroughly

Package clone provides functions to deep clone any Go data. It also provides a wrapper to protect a pointer from any unexpected mutation.

For users who use Go 1.18+, it’s recommended to import github.com/huandu/go-clone/generic for generic APIs and arena support.

Clone/Slowly can clone unexported fields and “no-copy” structs as well. Use this feature wisely.

Install

Use go get to install this package.

go get github.com/huandu/go-clone

Usage

Clone and Slowly

If we want to clone any Go value, use Clone.

t := &T{...}
v := clone.Clone(t).(*T)
reflect.DeepEqual(t, v) // true

For the sake of performance, Clone doesn’t deal with values containing pointer cycles. If we need to clone such values, use Slowly instead.

type ListNode struct {
    Data int
    Next *ListNode
}
node1 := &ListNode{
    Data: 1,
}
node2 := &ListNode{
    Data: 2,
}
node3 := &ListNode{
    Data: 3,
}
node1.Next = node2
node2.Next = node3
node3.Next = node1

// We must use `Slowly` to clone a circular linked list.
node := Slowly(node1).(*ListNode)

for i := 0; i < 10; i++ {…