java: how to use clone() and what about the cast check

Question

This code:

class RawStringIterator {
        java.util.Stack stateStack = new java.util.Stack();
        RawStringIterator(RawStrin         


        

Answer 1

There is no way to avoid the cast here. clone() returns Object, if it is java.util.Stack, it is not making use of co-variant return types.

If this is not java.util.Stack, then don't implement clone() - it's really hard to get it right. Make a copy-constructor instead.