Have in mind that clone()
doesn't work out of the box. You will have to implement Cloneable
and override the clone()
method making in public
.
There are a few alternatives, which are preferable (since the clone()
method has lots of design issues, as stated in other answers), and the copy-constructor would require manual work:
BeanUtils.cloneBean(original) creates a shallow clone, like the one created by Object.clone()
. (this class is from commons-beanutils)
SerializationUtils.clone(original) creates a deep clone. (i.e. the whole properties graph is cloned, not only the first level) (from commons-lang), but all classes must implement Serializable
Java Deep Cloning Library offers deep cloning without the need to implement Serializable