How to Deep Clone an Object by Value and not by Reference in C#

The following code snippet using serialization to deep clone an object in C#. Please note: ICloneable is a deprecated API. ICloneable is considered a poor API, since it does not specify whether the result is a deep or a shallow copy.

Code Snippet

1. // Usage
2. CLASSNAME clonedInstance = DeepClone<CLASSNAME>(instance);
3.  
4.  
5. // Deep clones an object
6. // Your class (and all sub-classes) MUST be marked as [Serializable] in order for this to work.
7. public static T DeepClone<T>(T obj)
8. {
9.     using (var ms = new System.IO.MemoryStream())
10.     {
11.         var formatter = new System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary.BinaryFormatter();
12.         formatter.Serialize(ms, obj);
13.         ms.Position = 0;
14.  
15.         return (T)formatter.Deserialize(ms);
16.     }
17. }

End of Code Snippet