Object Cloning

Cloning performing a deep copy

To copy nested objects, a deep copy (opens new window) must be performed, as shown in this example.

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

public class Sheep implements Cloneable {

    private String name;

    private int weight;

    private List<Sheep> children;

    public Sheep(String name, int weight) {
        this.name = name;
        this.weight = weight;
    }

    @Override
    public Object clone() throws CloneNotSupportedException {
        Sheep clone = (Sheep) super.clone();
        if (children != null) {
            // make a deep copy of the children
            List<Sheep> cloneChildren = new ArrayList<>(children.size());
            for (Sheep child : children) {
                cloneChildren.add((Sheep) child.clone());
            }
            clone.setChildren(cloneChildren);
        }
        return clone;
    }

    public List<Sheep> getChildren() {
        return children;
    }

    public void setChildren(List<Sheep> children) {
        this.children = children;
    }

}

import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;

// create a sheep
Sheep sheep = new Sheep("Dolly", 20);

// create children
Sheep child1 = new Sheep("Child1", 4);
Sheep child2 = new Sheep("Child2", 5);

sheep.setChildren(Arrays.asList(child1, child2));

// clone the sheep
Sheep dolly =  (Sheep) sheep.clone();
List<Sheep> sheepChildren = sheep.getChildren();
List<Sheep> dollysChildren = dolly.getChildren();
for (int i = 0; i < sheepChildren.size(); i++) {
    // prints false, both arrays contain copies of the objects inside
    System.out.println(sheepChildren.get(i) == dollysChildren.get(i));
}

Cloning using a copy constructor

An easy way to clone an object is by implementing a copy constructor.

public class Sheep {

    private String name;

    private int weight;

    public Sheep(String name, int weight) {
        this.name = name;
        this.weight = weight;
    }

    // copy constructor
    // copies the fields of other into the new object
    public Sheep(Sheep other) {
        this.name = other.name;
        this.weight = other.weight;
    }

}

// create a sheep
Sheep sheep = new Sheep("Dolly", 20);
// clone the sheep
Sheep dolly = new Sheep(sheep); // dolly.name is "Dolly" and dolly.weight is 20

Cloning by implementing Clonable interface

Cloning an object by implementing the Cloneable (opens new window) interface.

public class Sheep implements Cloneable {

    private String name;

    private int weight;

    public Sheep(String name, int weight) {
        this.name = name;
        this.weight = weight;
    }

    @Override
    public Object clone() throws CloneNotSupportedException {
        return super.clone();
    }

}

// create a sheep
Sheep sheep = new Sheep("Dolly", 20);
// clone the sheep
Sheep dolly =  (Sheep) sheep.clone(); // dolly.name is "Dolly" and dolly.weight is 20

Cloning performing a shallow copy

Default behavior when cloning an object is to perform a shallow copy (opens new window) of the object's fields. In that case, both the original object and the cloned object, hold references to the same objects.

This example shows that behavior.

import java.util.List;

public class Sheep implements Cloneable {

    private String name;

    private int weight;

    private List<Sheep> children;

    public Sheep(String name, int weight) {
        this.name = name;
        this.weight = weight;
    }

    @Override
    public Object clone() throws CloneNotSupportedException {
        return super.clone();
    }

    public List<Sheep> getChildren() {
        return children;
    }

    public void setChildren(List<Sheep> children) {
        this.children = children;
    }

}

import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.List;

// create a sheep
Sheep sheep = new Sheep("Dolly", 20);

// create children
Sheep child1 = new Sheep("Child1", 4);
Sheep child2 = new Sheep("Child2", 5);

sheep.setChildren(Arrays.asList(child1, child2));

// clone the sheep
Sheep dolly =  (Sheep) sheep.clone();
List<Sheep> sheepChildren = sheep.getChildren();
List<Sheep> dollysChildren = dolly.getChildren();
for (int i = 0; i < sheepChildren.size(); i++) {
    // prints true, both arrays contain the same objects
    System.out.println(sheepChildren.get(i) == dollysChildren.get(i));
}

Cloning using a copy factory

public class Sheep {

    private String name;
    
    private int weight;
    
    public Sheep(String name, int weight) {
        this.name = name;
        this.weight = weight;
    }
    
    public static Sheep newInstance(Sheep other);
        return new Sheep(other.name, other.weight)
    }

}

Remarks

Cloning can be tricky, especially when the object's fields hold other objects. There are situations where you want to perform a deep copy (opens new window), instead of only copying the field values (i.e. references to the other objects).

The bottom line is clone is broken (opens new window), and you should think twice before implementing the Cloneable interface and overriding the clone method. The clone method is declared in the Object class and not in the Cloneable interface, so Cloneable fails to function as an interface because it lacks a public clone method. The result is the contract for using clone is thinly documented and weakly enforced. For example, a class that overrides clone sometimes relies on all its parent classes also overriding clone. They are not enforced to do so, and if they do not your code may throw exceptions.

A much better solution for providing cloning functionality is to provide a copy constructor or copy factory. Refer to Joshua Bloch's Effective Java (opens new window) Item 11: Override clone judiciously.