How to automatically assign/copy all fields from an object A to object B without cloning?

Question

Context: A non-intrusive way to reload objects when their description file is changed

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Focus: adding dynamic reloading of objects with minimal changes to the existing codebase

Function called by FileSystemWatcher or alike:

void OnFileChanged(string filename, ...)
{
  var old3 = GetAssetByFilename(filename);
  var new3 = LoadAsset(filename);
  ...
  Utils.CopyFields(new3, old3);
  ...
}

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Notes:

• Cloning won't work because all objects would point to the old copy
• There are multiple multiple similar lists of assets
• Changing LoadAsset function is a no-go, there are multiple Load* functions to change
• Changing Asset clases is no-go
• Copying has to include private fields, etc.

Question: How to copy fields automatically (or is there a better way to do this)?

Answer 1

This seems to do the job:

public static class Utils 
{
    public static void CopyFields<T>(T source, T destination)
    {
        var fields = source.GetType().GetFields();
        foreach(var field in fields)
        {
            field.SetValue(destination, field.GetValue(source));    
        }            
    }
}