Stack.Clone() Method in C#
Last Updated :
11 Jul, 2025
This method is used to create a
shallow copy of the Stack. It just creates a copy of the Stack. The copy will have a reference to a clone of the internal data array but not a reference to the original internal data array.
Syntax: public virtual object Clone ();
Return Value: The method returns an Object which is just the shallow copy of the Stack.
Example 1: Let's see an example without using a Clone() method and directly copying a Stack using assignment operator '='. In the below code, we can see even if we Pop() elements from
myStack2, contents of myStack is also changed. This is because '=' just assigns the reference of myStack to myStack2 and does not create any new Stack. But Clone() creates a new Stack.
csharp
// C# program to Copy a Stack using
// the assignment operator
using System;
using System.Collections;
class GFG {
// Main Method
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
Stack myStack = new Stack();
myStack.Push("C");
myStack.Push("C++");
myStack.Push("Java");
myStack.Push("C#");
// Creating a copy using the
// assignment operator.
Stack myStack2 = myStack;
// Removing top most element
myStack2.Pop();
PrintValues(myStack);
}
public static void PrintValues(IEnumerable myCollection)
{
// This method prints all
// the elements in the Stack.
foreach(Object obj in myCollection)
Console.WriteLine(obj);
}
}
Example 2:
csharp
// C# program to illustrate the use
// of Stack.Clone() Method
using System;
using System.Collections;
class MainClass {
// Main Method
public static void Main(string[] args)
{
Stack myStack = new Stack();
myStack.Push("1st Element");
myStack.Push("2nd Element");
myStack.Push("3rd Element");
myStack.Push("4th Element");
// Creating copy using Clone() method
Stack myStack3 = (Stack)myStack.Clone();
// Removing top most element
myStack3.Pop();
PrintValues(myStack);
}
public static void PrintValues(IEnumerable myCollection)
{
// This method prints all the
// elements in the Stack.
foreach(Object obj in myCollection)
Console.WriteLine(obj);
}
}
Output:
4th Element
3rd Element
2nd Element
1st Element
Reference: