Make copy of an array

Question

I have an array a which is constantly being updated. Let\'s say a = [1,2,3,4,5]. I need to make an exact duplicate copy of a and call

Answer 1

If you want to make a copy of:

int[] a = {1,2,3,4,5};

This is the way to go:

int[] b = Arrays.copyOf(a, a.length);

Arrays.copyOf may be faster than a.clone() on small arrays. Both copy elements equally fast but clone() returns Object so the compiler has to insert an implicit cast to int[]. You can see it in the bytecode, something like this:

ALOAD 1
INVOKEVIRTUAL [I.clone ()Ljava/lang/Object;
CHECKCAST [I
ASTORE 2