The easiest way to clone an object except for one key would be to clone the whole object and then remove the property that is not required. The cloning, however, can be of 2 types −
- deep clone
- shallow clone
Shallow copies duplicate as little as possible. A shallow copy of a collection is a copy of the collection structure, not the elements. With a shallow copy, two collections now share the individual elements.
Example
let innerObj = {
a: 'b',
c: 'd'
}
let obj = {
x: "test",
y: innerObj
}
// Create a shallow copy.
let copyObj = Object.assign({}, obj);
// Both copyObj and obj's prop y now refers to the same innerObj. Any changes to this will be reflected.
innerObj.a = "test"
console.log(obj)
console.log(copyObj)
This will give the output:
{ x: 'test', y: { a: 'test', c: 'd' } }
{ x: 'test', y: { a: 'test', c: 'd' } }Note that shallow copies do not make clones recursively. It just does it at the top level.
Deep copies duplicate everything. A deep copy of a collection is two collections with all of the elements in the original collection cloned.
Example
let innerObj = {
a: 'b',
c: 'd'
}
let obj = {
x: "test",
y: innerObj
}
// Create a deep copy.
let copyObj = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(obj))
// Both copyObj and obj's prop y now refers to the same innerObj. Any changes to this will be reflected.
innerObj.a = "test"
console.log(obj)
console.log(copyObj)
This will give the output:
{ x: 'test', y: { a: 'test', c: 'd' } }
{ x: 'test', y: { a: 'b', c: 'd' } }Once you get a copy using either of these methods, you can remove the property you don't require using the delete keyword. For example,
Example
let original = { x: 'test', y: { a: 'test', c: 'd' } }
let copy = JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(original))
delete copy['x']
console.log(copy)
console.log(original)
This will give the output:
{ y: { a: 'test', c: 'd' } }
{ x: 'test', y: { a: 'test', c: 'd' } }