[Question] Support to build new objects from existing ones

[chrisbewz]

Hello @m31coding ,

Is it possible to implement a way of start the building process from an existing object instance?

Currently the only way of bootstrapping the builder was through usage of InitialStep method, which sets the internal object being buiild as a fresh instance.

But in some scenarios it would be good to be capable of starting from an existing state and just update some particular members (similar to how we rely on with keyword in records. Maybe a new addition on generated code such as Builder.FromExisting(T instance) or an overload of InitialStep like Builder.InitialStep(T instance) would be good ?

Thanks,

Christian

[m31coding]

Hi @chrisbewz

thank you for sharing your suggestion. I think a new method like Builder.FromExisting(T instance) would be reasonable. The builder would then start with this instance instead of creating a new one. There is one caveat to keep in mind:

The builder steps will not vary depending on which variables of the provided instance are already set.
Depending on the builder, all instance variables may be overwritten.

Let me know what you think.
Best regards,
Kevin