Java 'Prototype' pattern - new vs clone vs class.newInstance

Question

In my project there are some \'Prototype\' factories that create instances by cloning a final private instance.

The author of those factories says that this pattern prov

Answer 1

I have created simple benchmark for class Person. I am using latest OpenJDK 8:

public class Person {
    private String name;
    private int age;

    public String getName() {
        return name;
    }

    public void setName(String name) {
        this.name = name;
    }

    public int getAge() {
        return age;
    }

    public void setAge(int age) {
        this.age = age;
    }
}

And got the following results:

Benchmark             Mode  Cnt     Score       Error   Units

MyBenchmark.viaClone  avgt   10     10.041 ±    0.059   ns/op
MyBenchmark.viaNew    avgt   10      7.617 ±    0.113   ns/op

This simple benchmark demonstrates that instantiating new object and setting corresponding properties from source object takes 25% less time than cloning it.