clone() method in Java

Question

as I understood, the method clone() gives us the ability to copy object (no refernce) in Java. But I also read, that the copy is shallow. So what the point? Which a

Answer 1

An assignment copies the reference of an instance to a variable. A clone operation will clone the instance (and assign a reference to the clone).

With assignment, you'll end up with multiple variables pointing to one object, with cloning you'll have multiple variables that hold references of multiple objects.

SomeCloneable a = new SomeCloneable();
SomeCloneable b = a;                     // a and b point to the same object

/* versus */

SomeCloneable a = new SomeCloneable();
SomeCloneable b = a.clone();             // a and b point to the different objects