# phpman > man > Clone(3pm)

## NAME
    Clone - recursively copy Perl datatypes

## SYNOPSIS
        use Clone 'clone';

        my $data = {
           set => [ 1 .. 50 ],
           foo => {
               answer => 42,
               object => SomeObject->new,
           },
        };

        my $cloned_data = clone($data);

        $cloned_data->{foo}{answer} = 1;
        print $cloned_data->{foo}{answer};  # '1'
        print $data->{foo}{answer};         # '42'

    You can also add it to your class:

        package Foo;
        use parent 'Clone';
        sub new { bless {}, shift }

        package main;

        my $obj = Foo->new;
        my $copy = $obj->clone;

## DESCRIPTION
    This module provides a "clone()" method which makes recursive copies of nested hash, array,
    scalar and reference types, including tied variables and objects.

    "clone()" takes a scalar argument and duplicates it. To duplicate lists, arrays or hashes, pass
    them in by reference, e.g.

        my $copy = clone (\@array);

        # or

        my %copy = %{ clone (\%hash) };

## SEE ALSO
    Storable's "dclone()" is a flexible solution for cloning variables, albeit slower for
    average-sized data structures. Simple and naive benchmarks show that Clone is faster for data
    structures with 3 or fewer levels, while "dclone()" can be faster for structures 4 or more
    levels deep.

## COPYRIGHT
    Copyright 2001-2019 Ray Finch. All Rights Reserved.

    This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as
    Perl itself.

## AUTHOR
    Ray Finch "<<rdf@cpan.org>>"

    Breno G. de Oliveira "<<garu@cpan.org>>" and Florian Ragwitz "<<rafl@debian.org>>" perform routine
    maintenance releases since 2012.