Native deep cloning

There's now a JS standard called "structured cloning", that works experimentally in Node 11 and later, will land in browsers, and which has polyfills for existing systems.

structuredClone(value)

If needed, loading the polyfill first:

import structuredClone from '@ungap/structured-clone';

See this answer for more details.

Older answers

Fast cloning with data loss - JSON.parse/stringify

If you do not use Dates, functions, undefined, Infinity, RegExps, Maps, Sets, Blobs, FileLists, ImageDatas, sparse Arrays, Typed Arrays or other complex types within your object, a very simple one liner to deep clone an object is:

JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(object))

const a = {
  string: 'string',
  number: 123,
  bool: false,
  nul: null,
  date: new Date(),  // stringified
  undef: undefined,  // lost
  inf: Infinity,  // forced to 'null'
  re: /.*/,  // lost
}
console.log(a);
console.log(typeof a.date);  // Date object
const clone = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(a));
console.log(clone);
console.log(typeof clone.date);  // result of .toISOString()

See Corban's answer for benchmarks.

Reliable cloning using a library

Since cloning objects is not trivial (complex types, circular references, function etc.), most major libraries provide function to clone objects. Don't reinvent the wheel - if you're already using a library, check if it has an object cloning function. For example,

• lodash - cloneDeep; can be imported separately via the lodash.clonedeep module and is probably your best choice if you're not already using a library that provides a deep cloning function
• AngularJS - angular.copy
• jQuery - jQuery.extend(true, { }, oldObject); .clone() only clones DOM elements
• just library - just-clone; Part of a library of zero-dependency npm modules that do just do one thing. Guilt-free utilities for every occasion.

Assuming that you have only properties and not any functions in your object, you can just use:

var newObject = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(oldObject));

If there wasn't any builtin one, you could try:

function clone(obj) {
    if (obj === null || typeof (obj) !== 'object' || 'isActiveClone' in obj)
        return obj;

    if (obj instanceof Date)
        var temp = new obj.constructor(); //or new Date(obj);
    else
        var temp = obj.constructor();

    for (var key in obj) {
        if (Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(obj, key)) {
            obj['isActiveClone'] = null;
            temp[key] = clone(obj[key]);
            delete obj['isActiveClone'];
        }
    }
    return temp;
}

This is what I'm using:

function cloneObject(obj) {
    var clone = {};
    for(var i in obj) {
        if(typeof(obj[i])=="object" && obj[i] != null)
            clone[i] = cloneObject(obj[i]);
        else
            clone[i] = obj[i];
    }
    return clone;
}

Code:

// extends 'from' object with members from 'to'. If 'to' is null, a deep clone of 'from' is returned
function extend(from, to)
{
    if (from == null || typeof from != "object") return from;
    if (from.constructor != Object && from.constructor != Array) return from;
    if (from.constructor == Date || from.constructor == RegExp || from.constructor == Function ||
        from.constructor == String || from.constructor == Number || from.constructor == Boolean)
        return new from.constructor(from);

    to = to || new from.constructor();

    for (var name in from)
    {
        to[name] = typeof to[name] == "undefined" ? extend(from[name], null) : to[name];
    }

    return to;
}

Test:

var obj =
{
    date: new Date(),
    func: function(q) { return 1 + q; },
    num: 123,
    text: "asdasd",
    array: [1, "asd"],
    regex: new RegExp(/aaa/i),
    subobj:
    {
        num: 234,
        text: "asdsaD"
    }
}

var clone = extend(obj);

Deep copying objects in JavaScript (I think the best and the simplest)

1. Using JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(object));

var obj = { 
  a: 1,
  b: { 
    c: 2
  }
}
var newObj = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(obj));
obj.b.c = 20;
console.log(obj); // { a: 1, b: { c: 20 } }
console.log(newObj); // { a: 1, b: { c: 2 } } 

2.Using created method

function cloneObject(obj) {
    var clone = {};
    for(var i in obj) {
        if(obj[i] != null &&  typeof(obj[i])=="object")
            clone[i] = cloneObject(obj[i]);
        else
            clone[i] = obj[i];
    }
    return clone;
}

var obj = { 
  a: 1,
  b: { 
    c: 2
  }
}
var newObj = cloneObject(obj);
obj.b.c = 20;

console.log(obj); // { a: 1, b: { c: 20 } }
console.log(newObj); // { a: 1, b: { c: 2 } } 

3. Using Lo-Dash's _.cloneDeep link lodash

var obj = { 
  a: 1,
  b: { 
    c: 2
  }
}

var newObj = _.cloneDeep(obj);
obj.b.c = 20;
console.log(obj); // { a: 1, b: { c: 20 } }
console.log(newObj); // { a: 1, b: { c: 2 } } 

4. Using Object.assign() method

var obj = { 
  a: 1,
  b: 2
}

var newObj = _.clone(obj);
obj.b = 20;
console.log(obj); // { a: 1, b: 20 }
console.log(newObj); // { a: 1, b: 2 }  

BUT WRONG WHEN

var obj = { 
  a: 1,
  b: { 
    c: 2
  }
}

var newObj = Object.assign({}, obj);
obj.b.c = 20;
console.log(obj); // { a: 1, b: { c: 20 } }
console.log(newObj); // { a: 1, b: { c: 20 } } --> WRONG
// Note: Properties on the prototype chain and non-enumerable properties cannot be copied.

5.Using Underscore.js _.clone link Underscore.js

var obj = { 
  a: 1,
  b: 2
}

var newObj = _.clone(obj);
obj.b = 20;
console.log(obj); // { a: 1, b: 20 }
console.log(newObj); // { a: 1, b: 2 }  

BUT WRONG WHEN

var obj = { 
  a: 1,
  b: { 
    c: 2
  }
}

var newObj = _.cloneDeep(obj);
obj.b.c = 20;
console.log(obj); // { a: 1, b: { c: 20 } }
console.log(newObj); // { a: 1, b: { c: 20 } } --> WRONG
// (Create a shallow-copied clone of the provided plain object. Any nested objects or arrays will be copied by reference, not duplicated.)

JSBEN.CH Performance Benchmarking Playground 1~3 http://jsben.ch/KVQLd

var clone = function() {
    var newObj = (this instanceof Array) ? [] : {};
    for (var i in this) {
        if (this[i] && typeof this[i] == "object") {
            newObj[i] = this[i].clone();
        }
        else
        {
            newObj[i] = this[i];
        }
    }
    return newObj;
}; 

Object.defineProperty( Object.prototype, "clone", {value: clone, enumerable: false});

function clone(obj)
 { var clone = {};
   clone.prototype = obj.prototype;
   for (property in obj) clone[property] = obj[property];
   return clone;
 }

I am late to answer this question, but I have an another way of cloning the object:

function cloneObject(obj) {
    if (obj === null || typeof(obj) !== 'object')
        return obj;
    var temp = obj.constructor(); // changed
    for (var key in obj) {
        if (Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(obj, key)) {
            obj['isActiveClone'] = null;
            temp[key] = cloneObject(obj[key]);
            delete obj['isActiveClone'];
        }
    }
    return temp;
}

var b = cloneObject({"a":1,"b":2});   // calling

which is much better and faster then:

var a = {"a":1,"b":2};
var b = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(a));  

and

var a = {"a":1,"b":2};

// Deep copy
var newObject = jQuery.extend(true, {}, a);

I have bench-marked the code and you can test the results here:

and sharing the results: References: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Object/hasOwnProperty

In JavaScript, you can write your deepCopy method like

function deepCopy(src) {
  let target = Array.isArray(src) ? [] : {};
  for (let prop in src) {
    let value = src[prop];
    if(value && typeof value === 'object') {
      target[prop] = deepCopy(value);
  } else {
      target[prop] = value;
  }
 }
    return target;
}

In my experience, a recursive version vastly outperforms JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(obj)). Here is a modernized recursive deep object copy function which can fit on a single line:

function deepCopy(obj) {
  return Object.keys(obj).reduce((v, d) => Object.assign(v, {
    [d]: (obj[d].constructor === Object) ? deepCopy(obj[d]) : obj[d]
  }), {});
}

This is performing around 40 times faster than the JSON.parse... method.

Object.assign({},sourceObj) only clones the object if their property is not having reference type key. ex

obj={a:"lol",b:["yes","no","maybe"]}
clonedObj = Object.assign({},obj);

clonedObj.b.push("skip")// changes will reflected to the actual obj as well because of its reference type.
obj.b //will also console => yes,no,maybe,skip

So for the deep cloning is not possible to achieve in this way.

The best solution that works is

var obj = Json.stringify(yourSourceObj)
var cloned = Json.parse(obj);

Here is my way of deep cloning a object with ES2015 default value and spread operator

 const makeDeepCopy = (obj, copy = {}) => {
  for (let item in obj) {
    if (typeof obj[item] === 'object') {
      makeDeepCopy(obj[item], copy)
    }
    if (obj.hasOwnProperty(item)) {
      copy = {
        ...obj
      }
    }
  }
  return copy
}

const testObj = {
  "type": "object",
  "properties": {
    "userId": {
      "type": "string",
      "chance": "guid"
    },
    "emailAddr": {
      "type": "string",
      "chance": {
        "email": {
          "domain": "fake.com"
        }
      },
      "pattern": ".+@fake.com"
    }
  },
  "required": [
    "userId",
    "emailAddr"
  ]
}

const makeDeepCopy = (obj, copy = {}) => {
  for (let item in obj) {
    if (typeof obj[item] === 'object') {
      makeDeepCopy(obj[item], copy)
    }
    if (obj.hasOwnProperty(item)) {
      copy = {
        ...obj
      }
    }
  }
  return copy
}

console.log(makeDeepCopy(testObj))

Hope this helps.

function deepClone(obj) {
    /*
     * Duplicates an object 
     */

    var ret = null;
    if (obj !== Object(obj)) { // primitive types
        return obj;
    }
    if (obj instanceof String || obj instanceof Number || obj instanceof Boolean) { // string objecs
        ret = obj; // for ex: obj = new String("Spidergap")
    } else if (obj instanceof Date) { // date
        ret = new obj.constructor();
    } else
        ret = Object.create(obj.constructor.prototype);

    var prop = null;
    var allProps = Object.getOwnPropertyNames(obj); //gets non enumerables also


    var props = {};
    for (var i in allProps) {
        prop = allProps[i];
        props[prop] = false;
    }

    for (i in obj) {
        props[i] = i;
    }

    //now props contain both enums and non enums 
    var propDescriptor = null;
    var newPropVal = null; // value of the property in new object
    for (i in props) {
        prop = obj[i];
        propDescriptor = Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor(obj, i);

        if (Array.isArray(prop)) { //not backward compatible
            prop = prop.slice(); // to copy the array
        } else
        if (prop instanceof Date == true) {
            prop = new prop.constructor();
        } else
        if (prop instanceof Object == true) {
            if (prop instanceof Function == true) { // function
                if (!Function.prototype.clone) {
                    Function.prototype.clone = function() {
                        var that = this;
                        var temp = function tmp() {
                            return that.apply(this, arguments);
                        };
                        for (var ky in this) {
                            temp[ky] = this[ky];
                        }
                        return temp;
                    }
                }
                prop = prop.clone();

            } else // normal object 
            {
                prop = deepClone(prop);
            }

        }

        newPropVal = {
            value: prop
        };
        if (propDescriptor) {
            /*
             * If property descriptors are there, they must be copied
             */
            newPropVal.enumerable = propDescriptor.enumerable;
            newPropVal.writable = propDescriptor.writable;

        }
        if (!ret.hasOwnProperty(i)) // when String or other predefined objects
            Object.defineProperty(ret, i, newPropVal); // non enumerable

    }
    return ret;
}

https://github.com/jinujd/Javascript-Deep-Clone

My scenario was a bit different. I had an object with nested objects as well as functions. Therefore, Object.assign() and JSON.stringify() were not solutions to my problem. Using third-party libraries was not an option for me neither.

Hence, I decided to make a simple function to use built-in methods to copy an object with its literal properties, its nested objects, and functions.

let deepCopy = (target, source) => {
    Object.assign(target, source);
    // check if there's any nested objects
    Object.keys(source).forEach((prop) => {
        /**
          * assign function copies functions and
          * literals (int, strings, etc...)
          * except for objects and arrays, so:
          */
        if (typeof(source[prop]) === 'object') {
            // check if the item is, in fact, an array
            if (Array.isArray(source[prop])) {
                // clear the copied referenece of nested array
                target[prop] = Array();
                // iterate array's item and copy over
                source[prop].forEach((item, index) => {
                    // array's items could be objects too!
                    if (typeof(item) === 'object') {
                        // clear the copied referenece of nested objects
                        target[prop][index] = Object();
                        // and re do the process for nested objects
                        deepCopy(target[prop][index], item);
                    } else {
                        target[prop].push(item);
                    }
                });
            // otherwise, treat it as an object
            } else {
                // clear the copied referenece of nested objects
                target[prop] = Object();
                // and re do the process for nested objects
                deepCopy(target[prop], source[prop]);
            }
        }
    });
};

Here's a test code:

let a = {
    name: 'Human', 
    func: () => {
        console.log('Hi!');
    }, 
    prop: {
        age: 21, 
        info: {
            hasShirt: true, 
            hasHat: false
        }
    },
    mark: [89, 92, { exam: [1, 2, 3] }]
};

let b = Object();

deepCopy(b, a);

a.name = 'Alien';
a.func = () => { console.log('Wassup!'); };
a.prop.age = 1024;
a.prop.info.hasShirt = false;
a.mark[0] = 87;
a.mark[1] = 91;
a.mark[2].exam = [4, 5, 6];

console.log(a); // updated props
console.log(b);

For efficiency-related concerns, I believe this is the simplest and most efficient solution to the problem I had. I would appreciate any comments on this algorithm that could make it more efficient.

What about asynchronous object cloning done by a Promise?

async function clone(thingy /**/)
{
    if(thingy instanceof Promise)
    {
        throw Error("This function cannot clone Promises.");
    }
    return thingy;
}

For a shallow copy there is a great, simple method introduced in ECMAScript2018 standard. It involves the use of Spread Operator :

let obj = {a : "foo", b:"bar" , c:10 , d:true , e:[1,2,3] };

let objClone = { ...obj };

I have tested it in Chrome browser, both objects are stored in different locations, so changing immediate child values in either will not change the other. Though (in the example) changing a value in e will effect both copies.

This technique is very simple and straight forward. I consider this a true Best Practice for this question once and for all.

This is my solution without using any library or native javascript function.

function deepClone(obj) {
  if (typeof obj !== "object") {
    return obj;
  } else {
    let newObj =
      typeof obj === "object" && obj.length !== undefined ? [] : {};
    for (let key in obj) {
      if (key) {
        newObj[key] = deepClone(obj[key]);
      }
    }
    return newObj;
  }
}

When your object is nested and it contains data object, other structured object or some property object, etc then using JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(object)) or Object.assign({}, obj) or $.extend(true, {}, obj) will not work. In that case use lodash. It is simple and easy..

var obj = {a: 25, b: {a: 1, b: 2}, c: new Date(), d: anotherNestedObject };
var A = _.cloneDeep(obj);

Now A will be your new cloned of obj without any references..

if you find yourself doing this type of thing regular ( eg- creating undo redo functionality ) it might be worth looking into Immutable.js

const map1 = Immutable.fromJS( { a: 1, b: 2, c: { d: 3 } } );
const map2 = map1.setIn( [ 'c', 'd' ], 50 );

console.log( `${ map1.getIn( [ 'c', 'd' ] ) } vs ${ map2.getIn( [ 'c', 'd' ] ) }` ); // "3 vs 50"

https://codepen.io/anon/pen/OBpqNE?editors=1111

With the proposal of the new method Object.fromEntries() that is supported on newer versions of some browsers (reference). I want to contribute with the next recursive approach:

const obj = {
  key1: {key11: "key11", key12: "key12", key13: {key131: 22}},
  key2: {key21: "key21", key22: "key22"},
  key3: "key3",
  key4: [1,2,3, {key: "value"}]
}

const cloneObj = (obj) =>
{
    if (Object(obj) !== obj)
       return obj;
    else if (Array.isArray(obj))
       return obj.map(cloneObj);

    return Object.fromEntries(Object.entries(obj).map(
        ([k,v]) => ([k, cloneObj(v)])
    ));
}

// Clone the original object.
let newObj = cloneObj(obj);

// Make changes on the original object.
obj.key1.key11 = "TEST";
obj.key3 = "TEST";
obj.key1.key13.key131 = "TEST";
obj.key4[1] = "TEST";
obj.key4[3].key = "TEST";

// Display both objects on the console.
console.log("Original object: ", obj);
console.log("Cloned object: ", newObj);

.as-console {background-color:black !important; color:lime;}
.as-console-wrapper {max-height:100% !important; top:0;}

function clone(obj) {
    var copy;

    // Handle the 3 simple types, and null or undefined
    if (null == obj || "object" != typeof obj) return obj;

    // Handle Date
    if (obj instanceof Date) {
        copy = new Date();
        copy.setTime(obj.getTime());
        return copy;
    }

    // Handle Array
    if (obj instanceof Array) {
        copy = [];
        for (var i = 0, len = obj.length; i < len; i++) {
            copy[i] = clone(obj[i]);
        }
        return copy;
    }

    // Handle Object
    if (obj instanceof Object) {
        copy = {};
        for (var attr in obj) {
            if (obj.hasOwnProperty(attr)) copy[attr] = clone(obj[attr]);
        }
        return copy;
    }

    throw new Error("Unable to copy obj! Its type isn't supported.");
}

use the following method instead of JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(obj)) because it is slower than the following method

How do I correctly clone a JavaScript object?

How about merging the keys of the object with its values?

function deepClone(o) {
    var keys = Object.keys(o);
    var values = Object.values(o);

    var clone = {};

    keys.forEach(function(key, i) {
        clone[key] = typeof values[i] == 'object' ? Object.create(values[i]) : values[i];
    });

    return clone;
}

Note: This method doesn't necessarily make shallow copies, but it only copies with the depth of one inner-object, meaning that when you are given something like {a: {b: {c: null}}}, it will only clone the objects that are directly inside of them, so deepClone(a.b).c is technically a reference to a.b.c, while deepClone(a).b is a clone, not a reference.