Java Tutorials

• Three major considerations in writing a clone method
• Four different attitudes a class can have towards clone

Cloning objects

• A clone method returns a new object whose initial state is a copy of the current state of the object on which clone was invoked.
• Subsequent changes to the clone will not affect the state of the original.
• Object.clone()

Three major considerations in writing a clone method

• Empty Cloneable interface.
• Object.clone() method.
• CloneNotSupportedException.

Four different attitudes a class can have towards clone

• Support clone.
• Conditionally support clone.
• Allow subclasses to support clone but don't publicly support it.
• Forbid clone.