Creating objects from another object with same properties

Question

I have an object in C# with lets say 20 properties and it's part of a datacontract. I also have another business entity with similar properties, which I want to populate from the response object. Is there any way to do this other than assigning each property of one object to the corresponding properties of the other?

Answer 1

Yes, take a look at Automapper

Answer 2

MiscUtil has an answer to this (PropertyCopy) that uses Expression (.NET 3.5) and a static field to cache the compiled delegate (so there is negligible cost per invoke):

DestType clone = PropertyCopy<DestType>.CopyFrom(original);

If you are using 2.0, then probably reflection would be your friend. You can use HyperDescriptor to improve the performance if you need.