My Personal Experience Managing Local Changes in Database with `@ungap/structured-clone`

So I was recently working on a web app and hit a classic developer headache:

“How do I make changes to a local copy of my database data without messing up the original?”

Whether you’re working with forms, dashboards, or temporary updates — this problem always sneaks in.

That’s when I discovered a small but powerful package:

👉 @ungap/structured-clone

It instantly made my workflow cleaner, safer, and a lot less buggy. Here's how.

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The Problem: Local Changes, Global Mess

Here was my scenario:

• I fetched a complex object from MongoDB.

• I wanted to update some values locally — maybe a field like status or title.

• But I didn’t want to mutate the original data until the changes were confirmed or submitted.

Spread Operator or Object.assign()? Not Enough.

I tried the usual tricks:

const copy = { ...originalData };
// or
const copy = Object.assign({}, originalData);

These only perform shallow copies — they don’t help if your object has nested fields, arrays, or objects inside.

One small update in the nested data, and 💥 — the original object gets affected too.

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What Is @ungap/structured-clone?

It’s a tiny NPM package — a polyfill for the modern structuredClone() Web API.

(Which isn't available in all Node.js versions yet.)

It supports deep cloning of:

• Objects

• Arrays

• Maps & Sets

• Dates

• Nested values (yep, even deeply nested structures)

Basically, it’s like hitting “Duplicate Everything Safely” for any JavaScript value.

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🔧 How I Used It

Installation

npm install @ungap/structured-clone

Usage in My Project

import structuredClone from '@ungap/structured-clone';

const originalData = await getDataFromDatabase();
const localCopy = structuredClone(originalData);

// Make safe local changes
localCopy.status = "Published";
localCopy.updatedAt = new Date();

// Save only after confirming
await saveToDatabase(localCopy);

Simple. Safe. And it just works.

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Why I Loved It

Here are the main benefits I experienced:

• No accidental mutations

• Peace of mind while editing deeply nested structures

• Great for form editing, draft saving, or state management

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When Should You Use This?

If you're building apps with:

• Form editing with temporary state

• Undo/redo functionality

• Draft and review workflows

• Any app where users change data before saving

This tiny tool can save you from unexpected bugs and data inconsistencies.

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Bonus: It Plays Well with React

If you’re into the React or MERN stack world like me, using structured cloning for local state updates (especially in context or reducers) can be a life-saver.

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Final Thoughts

Sometimes it's the smallest packages that solve the biggest frustrations.

@ungap/structured-clone gave me the confidence to work with data safely, even in the most complex workflows.

If you're still manually deep-cloning with weird hacks or libraries, give this a shot — I promise you won't regret it.

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NPM Link

👉 @ungap/structured-clone

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Have you used structuredClone before? Or faced any horror stories with accidental data mutations?

Let’s chat in the comments 👇

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