Clone - recursively copy Perl datatypes

=======================================

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This module provides a `clone()` method which makes recursive

copies of nested hash, array, scalar and reference types,

including tied variables and objects.

```perl

    use Clone 'clone';

    my $data = {

       set => [ 1 .. 50 ],

       foo => {

           answer => 42,

           object => SomeObject->new,

       },

    };

    my $cloned_data = clone($data);

    $cloned_data->{foo}{answer} = 1;

    print $cloned_data->{foo}{answer};  # '1'

    print $data->{foo}{answer};         # '42'

```

You can also add it to your class:

```perl

    package Foo;

    use parent 'Clone';

    sub new { bless {}, shift }

    package main;

    my $obj = Foo->new;

    my $copy = $obj->clone;

```

`clone()` takes a scalar argument and duplicates it. To duplicate lists,

arrays or hashes, pass them in by reference, e.g.

```perl

    my $copy = clone (\@array);

    # or

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

```

See Also

--------

[Storable](https://metacpan.org/pod/Storable)'s `dclone()` is a flexible solution for cloning variables,

albeit slower for average-sized data structures. Simple

and naive benchmarks show that Clone is faster for data structures

with 3 or fewer levels, while `dclone()` can be faster for structures

4 or more levels deep.

COPYRIGHT

---------

Copyright 2001-2017 Ray Finch. All Rights Reserved.

This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or

modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

AUTHOR

------

Ray Finch `<rdf@cpan.org>`

Breno G. de Oliveira `<garu@cpan.org>` and

Florian Ragwitz `<rafl@debian.org>` perform routine maintenance

releases since 2012.