How do you clone an array of objects in JavaScript?

Question

...where each object also has references to other objects within the same array?

When I first came up with this problem I just thought of something like

var clonedNodesArray = nodesArray.clone()

would exist and searched for information on how to clone objects in JavaScript. I did find a question on Stack Overflow (answered by the very same @JohnResig) and he pointed out that with jQuery you could do

var clonedNodesArray = jQuery.extend({}, nodesArray);

to clone an object. I tried this though, and this only copies the references of the objects in the array. So if I

nodesArray[0].value = "red"
clonedNodesArray[0].value = "green"

the value of both nodesArray[0] and clonedNodesArray[0] will turn out to be "green". Then I tried

var clonedNodesArray = jQuery.extend(true, {}, nodesArray);

which deep copies an Object, but I got "too much recursion" and "control stack overflow" messages from both Firebug and Opera Dragonfly respectively.

How would you do it? Is this something that shouldn't even be done? Is there a reusable way of doing this in JavaScript?

Answer 1

Creating a deep copy with structuredClone

The modern way to deep copy an array in JavaScript is to use structuredClone:

array2 = structuredClone(array1);

This function is relatively new (Chrome 98, Firefox 94) and is currently available to about 95% of users, so may not ready for production without a polyfill.

As an alternative, you can use one of the well-supported JSON-based solutions below.

Creating a deep copy with JSON.parse

A general solution, that accounts for all possible objects inside an Array of objects may not be possible. That said, if your array contains objects that have JSON-serializable content (no functions, no Number.POSITIVE_INFINITY, etc.) one simple way to avoid loops, at a performance cost, is this pure vanilla one-line solution.

let clonedArray = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(nodesArray))

To summarize the comments below, the primary advantage of this approach is that it also clones the contents of the array, not just the array itself. The primary downsides are its limit of only working on JSON-serializable content, and it's performance is ~30 times slower than the spread method.

If you have shallow objects in the array, and IE6 is acceptable, a better approach is to use the spread operator combined with the .map array operator. For a two levels deep situation (like the array in the Appendix below):

clonedArray = nodesArray.map(a => {return {...a}})

The reasons are two fold: 1) It is much, much faster (see below for a benchmark comparison) and it will also allow any valid object in your array.

*Appendix: The performance quantification is based on cloning this array of objects a million times:

 [{url: 'https://github.com/bobziroll/scrimba-react-bootcamp-images/blob/master/pic1.jpg?raw=true', id: '1', isFavorite: false}, {url: 'https://github.com/bobziroll/scrimba-react-bootcamp-images/blob/master/pic2.jpg?raw=true', id: '2', isFavorite: false},{url: 'https://github.com/bobziroll/scrimba-react-bootcamp-images/blob/master/pic3.jpg?raw=true', id: '3', isFavorite: false},{url: 'https://github.com/bobziroll/scrimba-react-bootcamp-images/blob/master/pic4.jpg?raw=true', id: '4', isFavorite: false},{url: 'https://github.com/bobziroll/scrimba-react-bootcamp-images/blob/master/pic5.jpg?raw=true', id: '5', isFavorite: true},{url: 'https://github.com/bobziroll/scrimba-react-bootcamp-images/blob/master/pic6.jpg?raw=true', id: '6', isFavorite: false},{url: 'https://github.com/bobziroll/scrimba-react-bootcamp-images/blob/master/pic7.jpg?raw=true', id: '7', isFavorite: false},{url: 'https://github.com/bobziroll/scrimba-react-bootcamp-images/blob/master/pic8.jpg?raw=true', id: '8', isFavorite: false},{url: 'https://github.com/bobziroll/scrimba-react-bootcamp-images/blob/master/pic9.jpg?raw=true', id: '9', isFavorite: false},{url: 'https://github.com/bobziroll/scrimba-react-bootcamp-images/blob/master/pic10.jpg?raw=true', id: '10', isFavorite: false},{url: 'https://github.com/bobziroll/scrimba-react-bootcamp-images/blob/master/pic11.jpg?raw=true', id: '11', isFavorite: false},{url: 'https://github.com/bobziroll/scrimba-react-bootcamp-images/blob/master/pic12.jpg?raw=true', id: '12', isFavorite: false},{url: 'https://github.com/bobziroll/scrimba-react-bootcamp-images/blob/master/pic13.jpg?raw=true', id: '13', isFavorite: false},{url: 'https://github.com/bobziroll/scrimba-react-bootcamp-images/blob/master/pic14.jpg?raw=true', id: '14', isFavorite: false},{url: 'https://github.com/bobziroll/scrimba-react-bootcamp-images/blob/master/pic15.jpg?raw=true', id: '15', isFavorite: false},{url: 'https://github.com/bobziroll/scrimba-react-bootcamp-images/blob/master/pic16.jpg?raw=true', id: '16', isFavorite: false},{url: 'https://github.com/bobziroll/scrimba-react-bootcamp-images/blob/master/pic17.jpg?raw=true', id: '17', isFavorite: false},{url: 'https://github.com/bobziroll/scrimba-react-bootcamp-images/blob/master/pic18.jpg?raw=true', id: '18', isFavorite: false},{url: 'https://github.com/bobziroll/scrimba-react-bootcamp-images/blob/master/pic19.jpg?raw=true', id: '19', isFavorite: false},{url: 'https://github.com/bobziroll/scrimba-react-bootcamp-images/blob/master/pic20.jpg?raw=true', id: '20', isFavorite: false},{url: 'https://github.com/bobziroll/scrimba-react-bootcamp-images/blob/master/pic21.jpg?raw=true', id: '21', isFavorite: false},{url: 'https://github.com/bobziroll/scrimba-react-bootcamp-images/blob/master/pic22.jpg?raw=true', id: '22', isFavorite: false},{url: 'https://github.com/bobziroll/scrimba-react-bootcamp-images/blob/master/pic23.jpg?raw=true', id: '23', isFavorite: false}]

either using:

let clonedArray = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(nodesArray))

or:

clonedArray = nodesArray.map(a => {return {...a}})

The map/spread approach took 0.000466 ms per pass and the JSON.parse and JSON.stringify 0.014771 ms per pass.*

Answer 2

I solved cloning of an array of objects with Object.assign

const newArray = myArray.map(a => Object.assign({}, a));

or even shorter with spread syntax

const newArray = myArray.map(a => ({...a}));

Answer 3

If all you need is a shallow copy, a really easy way is:

new_array = old_array.slice(0);

Answer 4

The issue with your shallow copy is that all the objects aren't cloned. While the references to each object are unique in each array, once you ultimately grab onto it you're dealing with the same object as before. There is nothing wrong with the way you cloned it... the same result would occur using Array.slice().

The reason your deep copy is having problems is because you're ending up with circular object references. Deep will go as deep as it can go, and if you've got a circle, it'll keep going infinitely until the browser faints.

If the data structure cannot be represented as a directed acyclic graph, then I'm not sure you're going to be able to find an all-purpose method for deep cloning. Cyclic graphs provide many tricky corner cases, and since it's not a common operation I doubt anyone has written a full solution (if it's even possible - it might not be! But I have no time to try to write a rigorous proof now.). I found some good comments on the issue on this page.

If you need a deep copy of an Array of Objects with circular references I believe you're going to have to code your own method to handle your specialized data structure, such that it is a multi-pass clone:

1. On round one, make a clone of all objects that don't reference other objects in the array. Keep a track of each object's origins.
2. On round two, link the objects together.

Answer 5

If you only need a shallow clone, the best way to do this clone is as follows:

Using the ... ES6 spread operator.

Here's the simplest example:

var clonedObjArray = [...oldObjArray];

This way we spread the array into individual values and put it in a new array with the [] operator.

Here's a longer example that shows the different ways it works:

let objArray = [ {a:1} , {b:2} ];

let refArray = objArray; // this will just point to the objArray
let clonedArray = [...objArray]; // will clone the array

console.log( "before:" );
console.log( "obj array" , objArray );
console.log( "ref array" , refArray );
console.log( "cloned array" , clonedArray );

objArray[0] = {c:3};

console.log( "after:" );
console.log( "obj array" , objArray ); // [ {c:3} , {b:2} ]
console.log( "ref array" , refArray ); // [ {c:3} , {b:2} ]
console.log( "cloned array" , clonedArray ); // [ {a:1} , {b:2} ]

Answer 6

This works for me:

var clonedArray = $.map(originalArray, function (obj) {
                      return $.extend({}, obj);
                  });

And if you need a deep copy of objects in the array:

var clonedArray = $.map(originalArray, function (obj) {
                      return $.extend(true, {}, obj);
                  });

Answer 7

If you want to implement a deep clone, use JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(your {} or [])):

const myObj ={
    a: 1,
    b: 2,
    b: 3
}

const deepClone = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(myObj));
deepClone.a = 12;
console.log("deepClone-----"+myObj.a);
const withOutDeepClone = myObj;
withOutDeepClone.a = 12;
console.log("withOutDeepClone----" + myObj.a);

Answer 8

$.evalJSON($.toJSON(origArray));

Answer 9

from 2022, we can use structuredClone to deep copy.

structuredClone(array)

Answer 10

Lodash has the cloneDeep function for these purposes:

var objects = [{ 'a': 1 }, { 'b': 2 }];
var deep = _.cloneDeep(objects);

Answer 11

Map will create a new array from the old one (without reference to old one) and inside the map you create a new object and iterate over properties (keys) and assign values from the old Array object to corresponding properties to the new object.

This will create exactly the same array of objects.

let newArray = oldArray.map(a => {
               let newObject = {};
               Object.keys(a).forEach(propertyKey => {
                    newObject[propertyKey] = a[propertyKey];
               });
               return newObject;
});

Answer 12

I may have a simple way to do this without having to do painful recursion and not knowing all the finer details of the object in question. Using jQuery, simply convert your object to JSON using the jQuery $.toJSON(myObjectArray), then take your JSON string and evaluate it back to an object. BAM! Done, and done! Problem solved. :)

var oldObjArray = [{ Something: 'blah', Cool: true }];
var newObjArray = eval($.toJSON(oldObjArray));

Answer 13

I'm answering this question because there doesn't seem to be a simple and explicit solution to the problem of "cloning an array of objects in JavaScript":

function deepCopy (arr) {
    var out = [];
    for (var i = 0, len = arr.length; i < len; i++) {
        var item = arr[i];
        var obj = {};
        for (var k in item) {
            obj[k] = item[k];
        }
        out.push(obj);
    }
    return out;
}

// test case

var original = [
    {'a' : 1},
    {'b' : 2}
    ];

var copy = deepCopy(original);

// change value in copy
copy[0]['a'] = 'not 1';

// original[0]['a'] still equals 1

This solution iterates the array values, iterates the object keys, saving the latter to a new object, and pushes that new object to a new array.

See jsfiddle. Note: a simple .slice() or [].concat() isn't enough for the objects within the array.

Answer 14

This method is very simple and you can modify your clone without modifying the original array.

// Original Array
let array = [{name: 'Rafael'}, {name: 'Matheus'}];

// Cloning Array
let clone = array.map(a => {return {...a}})

// Editing the cloned array
clone[1].name = 'Carlos';


console.log('array', array)
// [{name: 'Rafael'}, {name: 'Matheus'}]

console.log('clone', clone)
// [{name: 'Rafael'}, {name: 'Carlos'}]

Answer 15

As Daniel Lew mentioned, cyclic graphs have some problems. If I had this problem I'd either add special clone() methods to the problematic objects or remember which objects I've already copied.

I'd do it with a variable copyCount which increases by 1 every time you copy in your code. An object that has a lower copyCount than the current copy-process is copied. If not, the copy, that exists already, should be referenced. This makes it necessary to link from the original to its copy.

There is still one problem: Memory. If you have this reference from one object to the other, it's likely that the browser can't free those objects, as they are always referenced from somewhere. You'd have to make a second pass where you set all copy-references to Null. (If you do this, you'd not have to have a copyCount but a boolean isCopied would be enough, as you can reset the value in the second pass.)

Answer 16

I use the new ECMAScript 6 Object.assign method:

let oldObject = [1, 3, 5, "test"];
let newObject = Object.assign({}, oldObject);

The first argument of this method is the array to be updated. We pass an empty object, because we want to have a new object.

We can also use this syntax, which is the same but shorter:

let newObject = [...oldObject];

Answer 17

My approach:

var temp = { arr : originalArray };
var obj = $.extend(true, {}, temp);
return obj.arr;

gives me a nice, clean, deep clone of the original array - with none of the objects referenced back to the original :-)

Answer 18

jQuery extend is working fine. You just need to specify that you are cloning an array rather than an object (note the [] instead of {} as parameter to the extend method):

var clonedNodesArray = jQuery.extend([], nodesArray);

Answer 19

I was pretty frustrated by this problem. Apparently the problem arises when you send in a generic Array to the $.extend method. So, to fix it, I added a little check, and it works perfectly with generic arrays, jQuery arrays, and any objects.

jQuery.extend({
    deepclone: function(objThing) {
        // return jQuery.extend(true, {}, objThing);
        /// Fix for arrays, without this, arrays passed in are returned as OBJECTS! WTF?!?!
        if ( jQuery.isArray(objThing) ) {
            return jQuery.makeArray( jQuery.deepclone($(objThing)) );
        }
        return jQuery.extend(true, {}, objThing);
    },
});

Invoke using:

var arrNewArrayClone = jQuery.deepclone(arrOriginalArray);
// Or more simply/commonly
var arrNewArrayClone = $.deepclone(arrOriginalArray);

Answer 20

This deeply copies arrays, objects, null and other scalar values, and also deeply copies any properties on non-native functions (which is pretty uncommon but possible). (For efficiency, we do not attempt to copy non-numeric properties on arrays.)

function deepClone (item) {
  if (Array.isArray(item)) {
    var newArr = [];
    for (var i = item.length; i-- > 0;) {
      newArr[i] = deepClone(item[i]);
    }
    return newArr;
  }
  if (typeof item === 'function' && !(/\(\) \{ \[native/).test(item.toString())) {
    var obj;
    eval('obj = '+ item.toString());
    for (var k in item) {
      obj[k] = deepClone(item[k]);
    }
    return obj;
  }
  if (item && typeof item === 'object') {
    var obj = {};
    for (var k in item) {
      obj[k] = deepClone(item[k]);
    }
    return obj;
  }
  return item;
}

Answer 21

Forget eval() (it is the most misused feature of JavaScript and makes the code slow) and slice(0) (works for simple data types only)

This is the best solution for me:

Object.prototype.clone = function() {
  var myObj = (this instanceof Array) ? [] : {};
  for (i in this) {
    if (i != 'clone') {
        if (this[i] && typeof this[i] == "object") {
          myObj[i] = this[i].clone();
        }
        else
          myObj[i] = this[i];
    }
  }
  return myObj;
};

Answer 22

I am using Vue.js, so arrays/objects have other code tacked-on for Vue.js functionality. I tried many of the answers given, but I ended up using clone-deep.

Answer 23

We can invent a simple recursive Array method to clone multidimensional arrays. While the objects within the nested arrays keep their reference to the corresponding objects in the source array, arrays won't.

Array.prototype.clone = function(){
  return this.map(e => Array.isArray(e) ? e.clone() : e);
};

var arr = [ 1, 2, 3, 4, [ 1, 2, [ 1, 2, 3 ], 4 , 5], 6 ],
    brr = arr.clone();
brr[4][2][1] = "two";
console.log(JSON.stringify(arr));
console.log(JSON.stringify(brr));

Answer 24

With jQuery:

var target = [];
$.each(source, function() {target.push($.extend({}, this));});

Answer 25

The following code will perform a deep copy of objects and arrays recursively:

function deepCopy(obj) {
    if (Object.prototype.toString.call(obj) === '[object Array]') {
        var out = [], i = 0, len = obj.length;
        for ( ; i < len; i++ ) {
            out[i] = arguments.callee(obj[i]);
        }
        return out;
    }
    if (typeof obj === 'object') {
        var out = {}, i;
        for ( i in obj ) {
            out[i] = arguments.callee(obj[i]);
        }
        return out;
    }
    return obj;
}

Source

Answer 26

Here is a my solution. It works for an array of objects or Map. This solution keeps the methods also.

A deep copy means actually creating a new array and copying over the values, since whatever happens to it will never affect the origin one.

This is the best solution for me:

deepCopy(inputObj: any) {
    var newObj = inputObj;
    if (inputObj && typeof inputObj === "object") {
        newObj = Object.prototype.toString.call(inputObj) === "[object Array]" ? [] : {};
        for (var i in inputObj) {
            newObj[i] = this.deepCopy(inputObj[i]);
        }

        //For maps
        if(Object.prototype.toString.call(inputObj) === "[object Map]"){
            newObj = new Map;
            inputObj.forEach((v,k) =>{
                newObj.set(k,this.deepCopy(v));
            });
        }
    }
    return newObj;
}

Answer 27

Most concise solution for shallow copy:

array = array.map(obj => {
    return { ...obj };
});

This would make a completely independent copy of something like [{a: 1}, {b: 2}], but not [{a: {b: 2}}, {b: {a: 1}}].

Answer 28

Depending if you have Underscore.js or Babel, here is a benchmark of the different way of deep cloning an array.

https://jsperf.com/object-rest-spread-vs-clone/2

It looks like Babel is the fastest.

var x = babel({}, obj)

Answer 29

var game_popularity = [
     { game: "fruit ninja", popularity: 78 },
     { game: "road runner", popularity: 20 },
     { game: "maze runner", popularity: 40 },
     { game: "ludo", popularity: 75 },
     { game: "temple runner", popularity: 86 }
];
console.log("sorted original array before clonning");
game_popularity.sort((a, b) => a.popularity < b.popularity);
console.log(game_popularity);


console.log("clone using object assign");
const cl2 = game_popularity.map(a => Object.assign({}, a));
cl2[1].game = "clash of titan";
cl2.push({ game: "logan", popularity: 57 });
console.log(cl2);


// Adding new array element doesnt reflect in original array
console.log("clone using concat");
var ph = []
var cl = ph.concat(game_popularity);

// Copied by reference ?
cl[0].game = "rise of civilization";

game_popularity[0].game = 'ping me';
cl.push({ game: "angry bird", popularity: 67 });
console.log(cl);

console.log("clone using ellipses");
var cl3 = [...game_popularity];
cl3.push({ game: "blue whale", popularity: 67 });
cl3[2].game = "harry potter";
console.log(cl3);

console.log("clone using json.parse");
var cl4 = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(game_popularity));
cl4.push({ game: "home alone", popularity: 87 });
cl4[3].game ="lockhead martin";
console.log(cl4);

console.log("clone using Object.create");
var cl5 = Array.from(Object.create(game_popularity));
cl5.push({ game: "fish ville", popularity: 87 });
cl5[3].game ="veto power";
console.log(cl5);


// Array function
console.log("sorted original array after clonning");
game_popularity.sort((a, b) => a.popularity < b.popularity);
console.log(game_popularity);


console.log("Object.assign deep clone object array");
console.log("json.parse deep clone object array");
console.log("concat does not deep clone object array");
console.log("ellipses does not deep clone object array");
console.log("Object.create does not deep clone object array");

Output

sorted original array before clonning
[ { game: 'temple runner', popularity: 86 },
{ game: 'fruit ninja', popularity: 78 },
{ game: 'ludo', popularity: 75 },
{ game: 'maze runner', popularity: 40 },
{ game: 'road runner', popularity: 20 } ]
clone using object assign
[ { game: 'temple runner', popularity: 86 },
{ game: 'clash of titan', popularity: 78 },
{ game: 'ludo', popularity: 75 },
{ game: 'maze runner', popularity: 40 },
{ game: 'road runner', popularity: 20 },
{ game: 'logan', popularity: 57 } ]
clone using concat
[ { game: 'ping me', popularity: 86 },
{ game: 'fruit ninja', popularity: 78 },
{ game: 'ludo', popularity: 75 },
{ game: 'maze runner', popularity: 40 },
{ game: 'road runner', popularity: 20 },
{ game: 'angry bird', popularity: 67 } ]
clone using ellipses
[ { game: 'ping me', popularity: 86 },
{ game: 'fruit ninja', popularity: 78 },
{ game: 'harry potter', popularity: 75 },
{ game: 'maze runner', popularity: 40 },
{ game: 'road runner', popularity: 20 },
{ game: 'blue whale', popularity: 67 } ]
clone using json.parse
[ { game: 'ping me', popularity: 86 },
{ game: 'fruit ninja', popularity: 78 },
{ game: 'harry potter', popularity: 75 },
{ game: 'lockhead martin', popularity: 40 },
{ game: 'road runner', popularity: 20 },
{ game: 'home alone', popularity: 87 } ]
clone using Object.create
[ { game: 'ping me', popularity: 86 },
{ game: 'fruit ninja', popularity: 78 },
{ game: 'harry potter', popularity: 75 },
{ game: 'veto power', popularity: 40 },
{ game: 'road runner', popularity: 20 },
{ game: 'fish ville', popularity: 87 } ]
sorted original array after clonning
[ { game: 'ping me', popularity: 86 },
{ game: 'fruit ninja', popularity: 78 },
{ game: 'harry potter', popularity: 75 },
{ game: 'veto power', popularity: 40 },
{ game: 'road runner', popularity: 20 } ]

Object.assign deep clone object array
json.parse deep clone object array
concat does not deep clone object array
ellipses does not deep clone object array
Object.create does not deep clone object array

Answer 30

In my case I have an array with many nested objects, so the other answers were not applicable to my use case.

I'm now using the npm package deep-copy-all:

npm i deep-copy-all

const deepCopy = require("deep-copy-all")

const copy = deepCopy(original)
copy[0].users[0].payments[0].product.price = 10

console.log(copy[0].users[0].payments[0].product.price) // 10
console.log(original[0].users[0].payments[0].product.price) // 5