How to clone an object in VB6

Question

I am trying to automatically clone an object without having to instantiate a new one and manually copy every single variable.

I remember back in the day (when I did VB6 everyday) I came up with a method of cloning objects using the PropertyBag, which was pretty cool. But I've lost the code and don't remember how to do it anymore.

Does anyone remember or have another method?

Answer 1

Is this what you were looking for? Article is copied below for posterity.

Serialize Data Using a PropertyBag

You can serialize your data quickly by placing it into a PropertyBag object, then reading the PropertyBags Contents property. This property is really a Byte array that is a serial representation of the data in your PropertyBag object. You can use this byte array for many purposes, including an efficient means of data transmission over DCOM:

Private Function PackData() As String
    Dim pbTemp As PropertyBag

    'Create a new PropertyBag object
    Set pbTemp = New PropertyBag
    With pbTemp
     'Add your data to the PB giving each item a 
     'unique string key
     Call .WriteProperty("FirstName", "John")
     Call .WriteProperty("MiddleInitial", "J")
     Call .WriteProperty("LastName", "Doe")

     'Place the serialized data into a string 
     'variable.
     Let PackData = .Contents
    End With

    Set pbTemp = Nothing
End Function

To retrieve the serialized data, simply create a new PropertyBag object and set the serialized string to its Contents property. Convert the string into a byte array before assigning it to the Contents property:

Private Sub UnPackData(sData As String)
    Dim pbTemp As PropertyBag
    Dim arData() As Byte

    'Convert the string representation of the data to 
    'a Byte array
    Let arData() = sData

    'Create a new PropertyBag object
    Set pbTemp = New PropertyBag
    With pbTemp
     'Load the PropertyBag with data
     Let .Contents = arData()

     'Retrieve your data using the unique key
     Let m_sFirstName = .ReadProperty("FirstName")
     Let m_sMiddleInitial = _
      .ReadProperty("MiddleInitial")
     Let m_sLastName = .ReadProperty("LastName")
    End With

    Set pbTemp = Nothing
      End Sub

Mike Kurtz, McKees Rocks, Pa.

Answer 2

Also read: Persisting a Component's Data.

Answer 3

Every object in my application's framework has a Read and Store method. What I do is pass them a stream that writes to a bytearray and store the byte array. While this doesn't eliminate having to handle every property you only have to deal with this once for reading and once for writing.

An alternative is to use a property bag like Darrel Miller says but you still have to deal with each property separately. If you already have read and store then my suggestion should save some time.