RE: Is RPG 'DEAD"

Remember that the copy-from-class is likely to also contain other

class variables.

Very true, The shallow/deep copy question is one that always is a
problem. But in the rough-parallel to the OP's comment about newDS =
oldDS your class wouldn't contain other classes.

How good is Java's reflection? Could you implement a generic copy using
reflection to inspect the members and copy them one by one? Perhaps
something like

Static object Util.CopyObject(Object oldObject, CopyType type)

Where CopyType was an enum of Shallow and Deep.

Or

Static object Util.CopyObject(Object oldObject, int depth)

Where 0 was the object itself, -1 was infinite depth and > 0 was the
number of levels to traverse.

You'd inspect the oldObject for its type. Spin up a new object of that
type, and then walk the member variables doing a copy as you go.


-Walden