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clone method in java
Hi,
I heard that clone() method in java creates a copy of an object without calling the constructor. how does it create an another object without calling the constructor? i tried looking into source code of java.lang.Object clone() but it is native method. can anyone explain this?
Related threads:
Re: clone method in java
I think you may have misunderstood. Provide a reference for what you "heard", if possible.
Re: clone method in java
Hi,Originally Posted by GregBrannon
Thanks for the reply. I shall give you an example.
public class CloningEx implements Cloneable{
int b;
CloningEx(){
System.out.println("Default constructor");
}
public static void main(String ar[]) throws CloneNotSupportedException{
CloningEx ce = new CloningEx();
ce.b = 1000;
CloningEx ce1 = (CloningEx)ce.clone();
System.out.println(ce1.b);
}
}
in the above example, when i call clone method, the constructor is not getting called.
the o/p is:
Default constructor -- (this is for CloningEx ce = new CloningEx()
1000
How does a clone method work?
Re: clone method in java
The "default" clone method of Object is a shallow clone. It uses native code because there are several restrictions that even using reflection can't be got around, but there are no such limitations in native languages (namely, C/C++). The two main restrictions I can think of is assigning to final fields and creating an arbitrary object class (mostly if the class doesn't provide a default constructor). There might be more.
This is more than enough information which most Java developers won't need to deal with. If you are curious about the actual implementation, download the Java source and take a look.
sravya (August 26th, 2013)
Re: clone method in java
But without calling the constructor how does it create an object? if it calls the constructor why calling clone() in the above example (CloningEx ce1 = (CloningEx)ce.clone() ; ) did not print the sysout present in constructor?
Re: clone method in java
Objects are just bytes in memory. The object size must be known, so the native compiler will simply allocate the appropriate memory and place it into the Java heap. All it has to do for a shallow copy is to then copy the bytes from the original object to the new object, therefore no constructor is actually called.
This doesn't work all of the time, which is why it is highly recommended that you override clone() with your own implementation which may involve calling a specific constructor.
Re: clone method in java
Thank You so much!!
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