We can easily clone or copy a list to another list or array in C#. In this blog, we will use 3 different methods to clone or copy a list. It is very simple to do if you see our examples.

• Using List Constructor
• Using Enumerable.ToList Method (System.Linq)
• Using List<T>.CopyTo Method

Using List Constructor

First, we use the List constructor to inject/pass the source list, this will create a copy of the list which you passed through the constructor. The below code snippet shows how to clone the list using the List constructor.

class CloneList
{
	static void Main(string[] args)
	{
		// Original List
		var sourceList = new List<string>() { "Ford", "BMW", "Audi", "Toyota" };

		// Copied/Cloned List
		var clonedList = new List<string>(sourceList);		

		// Print Cloned List
		Console.WriteLine(String.Join(",", clonedList));
		Console.ReadKey();
	}
}  

 Output:

Ford,BMW,Audi,Toyota

Using Enumerable.ToList Method (System.Linq)

We use ToList() method to copy or clone the list to another list as shown in the below example. The ToList() returns the new List<T> that containing the original list.

class CloneList
{
	static void Main(string[] args)
	{
		// Original List
		var sourceList = new List<string>() { "Ford", "BMW", "Audi", "Toyota" };

		// Copied/Cloned List
		List<string> clonedList = sourceList.ToList();            

		// Print Cloned List
		Console.WriteLine(String.Join(",", clonedList));
		Console.ReadKey();
	}
}  

Output:

Ford,BMW,Audi,Toyota

Using List<T>.CopyTo Method

In this method, we use CopyTo() method to copy the entire List<T> to a one-dimensional array, starting at the beginning of the target array. as shown below.

class CloneList
{
	static void Main(string[] args)
	{
		// Original List
		var sourceList = new List<string>() { "Ford", "BMW", "Audi", "Toyota" };
		
		string[] arr = new string[10];
        
        // Copied/Cloned List to Array
		sourceList.CopyTo(arr);
		
        // Print Cloned List
		foreach (string value in arr)
		{
			Console.WriteLine(value);
		}
		Console.ReadKey();
	}
}  

 Output:

Ford
BMW
Audi
Toyota