C# coding tip: copying object property values from object to another

I recently was developing an ASP.NET MVC application and working with the view models and models of the application. In this project, I found myself needing a quick solution to copy public property values from database model objects to view model objects. Copy-paste of course works, but it tedious and error-prone.

Of course, the answer in the .NET land would be to use reflection. Here's the implementation I've been using (without exception handling):

using System.Reflection;
...
public static class MyCopier
{
  // copies public property values from one object to another
  public static void CopyObjectProperties(
    object source, object destination)
  {
    PropertyInfo[] sourceProperties =
      source.GetType().GetProperties();
    List destinationPropertyNames =
      destination.GetType().GetProperties().Select(
      p => p.Name).ToList();
    List propertiesToCopy =
        sourceProperties.Where(
        p => destinationPropertyNames.Contains(p.Name)).ToList();

    foreach (PropertyInfo property in propertiesToCopy)
    {
      object sourceValue = property.GetValue(source, null);
      if (sourceValue != null)
      {
        PropertyInfo targetProperty =
          destination.GetType().GetProperty(property.Name);
        targetProperty.SetValue(destination, sourceValue, null);
      }
    }
  }
}

Blogs on the Internet contain many solutions to the same problem with varying degrees of performance and versatility, but I often find these solutions either too complex for simple needs, or not clearly written. Thus, I thought I'd share my solution.

Happy hacking!