# AR deep clone

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ar-deep-clone/157039>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [January 6, 2009, 7:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ar-deep-clone/157039 "2009-01-06T19:25:52Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![roa](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/8e7dd6/32.png) [@roa](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/roa)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 7:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ar-deep-clone/157039/1 "2009-01-06T19:25:52Z")

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Hi all,

I’m having problems with cloning an ActiveRecord Object. The object  
consists of multiple child objects, so when I use the normal clone  
method, it only clones the attributes of the parent object.

Could someone help me out telling me how I can clone the child objects  
as wel? I have tried like:

```
  tmp.my_items.each do |item|
    @clone.my_items.build(item.clone)
  end

```

but that didn’t help. I know it must be something fairly easy, but I  
can’t figure it out.

Thank you in advance for the help.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![roa](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/8e7dd6/32.png) [@roa](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/roa)\
**Post date:** [January 6, 2009, 11:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ar-deep-clone/157039/2 "2009-01-06T23:05:40Z")

</div>

Ran into this a while back.

your\_ar\_instance.dup will keep the child records as well.

On Jan 6, 1:25 pm, Michael R. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)