C# | How to create a shallow copy of the BitArray

BitArray.Clone Method is used to create a shallow copy of the BitArray. This method only copies the elements of the collection, whether they are reference types or value types, but it does not copy the objects that the references refer to.
Syntax:

public object Clone ();

Example 1: Here we create an array of type byte. Then declare an object B1 of type BitArray and initialize it using the byte array created before. Declare another object B2 of type BitArray which will be used to store the clone of B1. The instruction B1.Clone returns the shallow copy of B1, which is of type System.Collections. Therefore explicitly convert it to BitArray before storing it in B2 object. And finally, display the cloned BitArray.

csharp

// C# program to demonstrate the
// BitArray.Clone Method
using System;
using System.Collections;

class GFG {

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        // Declaring a byte array
        byte[] ByteArray = new byte[] {1, 3};

        // Declaring a BitArray object
        // Initializing to the byte array
        BitArray B1 = new BitArray(ByteArray);

        // Declaring a new BitArray object
        BitArray B2 = new BitArray(4);

        // Using the BitArray.Clone method
        B2 = (BitArray)B1.Clone();

        // Displaying the length of the BitArray
        Console.WriteLine("Length of B2: {0}", B2.Length);

        Console.WriteLine("\nB2 Contains:");

        // To display the values
        // of BitArray object B2
        foreach(Object item in B2)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(item);
        }

    }
}

Output:

Length of B2: 16

B2 Contains:
True
False
False
False
False
False
False
False
True
True
False
False
False
False
False
False

Example 2: A shallow copy only copies the contents of the BitArray and not the object references, any changes made to B2 will only update those changes in B2 and not in B1.

csharp

// C#Program to show changes in clone
// don't affect the original BitArray
using System;
using System.Collections;

class GFG {

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        // Declaring a bool array
        bool[] BooleanArray = new bool[] {true,
                          false, true, false };

        // Declaring an object B1 of BitArray
        // Initialising with the bool array
        BitArray B1 = new BitArray(BooleanArray);

        int i;

        // Declaring object B2 of BitArray
        BitArray B2 = new BitArray(4);

        // Using the BitArray.Clone method
        B2 = (BitArray)B1.Clone();

        i = 4;

        // Displaying elements of B2
        Console.WriteLine("B2 Before Making any changes:");

        foreach(Object item in B2)
        {
            if (i <= 0)
            {
                Console.WriteLine();
                i = 6;
            }
            i--;
            Console.Write("{0, 4} ", item);
        }

        // Updating elements of B2
        // at index 0 and 1
        B2[0] = false;
        B2[1] = true;

        i = 4;

        // Displaying elements
        // of B2 after updating
        Console.WriteLine("\n\nB2 After changes:");

        foreach(Object item in B2)
        {
            if (i <= 0)
            {
                Console.WriteLine();
                i = 6;
            }
            i--;
            Console.Write("{0, 4} ", item);
        }

        // Displaying elements of B1
        Console.WriteLine("\n\nB1 After Changes:");

        i = 4;

        foreach(Object item in B1)
        {
            if (i <= 0)
            {
                Console.WriteLine();
                i = 6;
            }
            i--;
            Console.Write("{0, 4} ", item);
        }

    }
}

Output:

B2 Before Making any changes:
True False True False 

B2 After changes:
False True True False 

B1 After Changes:
True False True False

Reference:

• https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.collections.bitarray.clone?view=netframework-4.7.2