How to properly override clone method?

Question

I need to implement a deep clone in one of my objects which has no superclass.

What is the best way to handle the checked CloneNotSupportedException thr

Answer 1

There are two cases in which the CloneNotSupportedException will be thrown:

1. The class being cloned does not implemented Cloneable (assuming that the actual cloning eventually defers to Object's clone method). If the class you are writing this method in implements Cloneable, this will never happen (since any sub-classes will inherit it appropriately).
2. The exception is explicitly thrown by an implementation - this is the recommended way to prevent clonability in a subclass when the superclass is Cloneable.

The latter case cannot occur in your class (as you're directly calling the superclass' method in the try block, even if invoked from a subclass calling super.clone()) and the former should not since your class clearly should implement Cloneable.

Basically, you should log the error for sure, but in this particular instance it will only happen if you mess up your class' definition. Thus treat it like a checked version of NullPointerException (or similar) - it will never be thrown if your code is functional.

---

In other situations you would need to be prepared for this eventuality - there is no guarantee that a given object is cloneable, so when catching the exception you should take appropriate action depending on this condition (continue with the existing object, take an alternative cloning strategy e.g. serialize-deserialize, throw an IllegalParameterException if your method requires the parameter by cloneable, etc. etc.).

Edit: Though overall I should point out that yes, clone() really is difficult to implement correctly and difficult for callers to know whether the return value will be what they want, doubly so when you consider deep vs shallow clones. It's often better just to avoid the whole thing entirely and use another mechanism.