Clone is a Perl module that can recursively copy Perl datatypes.

SYNOPSIS

use Clone;

push @Foo::ISA, Clone;

$a = new Foo;
$b = $a->clone();

# or

use Clone qw(clone);

$a = { foo => bar, move => zig };
$b = [ alpha, beta, gamma, vlissides ];
$c = new Foo();

$d = clone($a);
$e = clone($b);
$f = clone($c);

This module provides a clone() method which makes recursive copies of nested hash, array, scalar and reference types, including tied variables and objects.

clone() takes a scalar argument and an optional parameter that can be used to limit the depth of the copy. To duplicate lists, arrays or hashes, pass them in by reference. e.g.

my $copy = clone (@array);

# or

my %copy = %{ clone (%hash) };

For a slower, but more flexible solution see Storables dclone().