Copying Objects in Java

Question

Consider the code below:

DummyBean dum = new DummyBean();
dum.setDummy("foo");
System.out.println(dum.getDummy()); // prints 'foo'

DummyBean dumtwo = dum;
System.out.println(dumtwo.getDummy()); // prints 'foo'

dum.setDummy("bar");
System.out.println(dumtwo.getDummy()); // prints 'bar' but it should print 'foo'

So, I want to copy the dum to dumtwo and change dum without affecting the dumtwo. But the code above is not doing that. When I change something in dum, the same change is happening in dumtwo also.

I guess, when I say dumtwo = dum, Java copies the reference only. So, is there any way to create a fresh copy of dum and assign it to dumtwo?

Answer 1

Deep Cloning is your answer, which requires implementing the Cloneable interface and overriding the clone() method.

public class DummyBean implements Cloneable {

   private String dummy;

   public void setDummy(String dummy) {
      this.dummy = dummy;
   }

   public String getDummy() {
      return dummy;
   }

   @Override
   public Object clone() throws CloneNotSupportedException {
      DummyBean cloned = (DummyBean)super.clone();
      cloned.setDummy(cloned.getDummy());
      // the above is applicable in case of primitive member types, 
      // however, in case of non primitive types
      // cloned.setNonPrimitiveType(cloned.getNonPrimitiveType().clone());
      return cloned;
   }
}

Answer 2

class DummyBean {
  private String dummy;

  public DummyBean(DummyBean another) {
    this.dummy = another.dummy; // you can access  
  }
}

Every object also has a clone method which can be used to copy the object, but don't use it. It is way too easy to create a class and do improper clone method. If you are going to do that, read at least what Joshua Bloch has to say about it in Effective Java.