Java: Copying Objects

Unlike C++ and JavaScript, there's no easy and direct way of copying objects. The built-in clone capability is poorly designed and is rarely the best alternative.

This article lists the pros and cons of all the common approaches, with examples.

• Copy Constructors
• Copy Factory Methods
• Serialization
• Cloning
• Copy methods
• Builders

Copy Constructors

A simple example:

public class Car {

    private String make;
    private int doors;
    private Motor motor;
    private Gearbox gearbox;

    public Car(Car other) {
        this.make = other.make;
        this.doors = other.doors;
        this.motor = other.motor;
        this.gearbox = other.gearbox;
    }
    …
}

Usage:

Car copy = new Car(original);

Note that this produces a shallow copy. (See Shallow vs Deep Copy, with examples.) If you do original.getGearbox().setGear(4), then copy's gear will change as well. To get a deep copy, change to…

…
    public Car(Car other) {
        this.make = other.make;
        this.doors = other.doors;
        this.motor = new Motor(other.motor);
        this.gearbox = new Gearbox(other.gearbox);
    }
…

Copy Constructors and Inheritance

Adding a subclass, Taxi is straight forward:

public class Taxi extends Car {

    boolean isAvailable;

    public Taxi(Taxi other) {
        // Invoke copy constructor of Car
        super(other);

        this.isAvailable = other.isAvailable;
    }
    …
}

However, when using a copy constructor you must know the actual runtime type. If you're not careful, you may inadvertently create a Car when trying to create a copy of a Taxi.

Car copy = new Car(someCar); // What if someCar is a Taxi?!

You could use instanceof (often considered bad practice) or the visitor pattern to sort it out, but in this case you're probably better off using one of the other techniques described in this article.

Copy Factory Methods

A copy factory method encapsulates the object copying logic and provides finer control over the process. In the example below, this capability is used to tacle the problem of inheritance mentioned in the previous section.

public class CarFactory {
    …
    public Car copyOf(Car c) {
        Class<?> cls = c.getClass();
        if (cls == Car.class) {
            return new Car(
                    c.make,
                    c.doors,
                    c.motor,
                    c.gearbox);
        }
        if (cls == Taxi.class) {
            return new Taxi(
                    c.make,
                    c.doors,
                    c.motor,
                    c.gearbox,
                    ((Taxi) c).isAvailable);
        }
        if (cls == Ambulance.class) {
            return new Ambulance(
                    c.make,
                    c.doors,
                    c.motor,
                    c.gearbox,
                    ((Ambulance) c).beaconsOn);
        }
        throw new IllegalArgumentException("Can't copy car of type " + cls);
    }
    …
}

Usage:

Car copy = myCarFactory.copyOf(car);

Serialization / Deserialization

By serializing an object into a byte array, then deserializing the byte array back into an object, you end up with a deep copy of the original.

// Serialize to byte[]
ByteArrayOutputStream os = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
new ObjectOutputStream(os).writeObject(original);
byte[] buf = os.toByteArray();

// Deserialize back into a Car object
ByteArrayInputStream is = new ByteArrayInputStream(buf);
Car copy = (Car) new ObjectInputStream(is).readObject();

With Apache Commons Lang the whole snippet can be replaced by…

Car copy = SerializationUtils.clone(original);

…which does not throw any checked exceptions and infers the correct return type.

Note that the serialization mechanism does not call any constructors. Customizing the serialization / deserialization—which is needed when dealing with non-serializable external classes—requires you to "override" private methods. This kind of unintuitive semantics makes it tricker to understand, debug, and maintain code.

That being said, any serialization library would do. If you already have for example Jackson or Gson set up, you can reuse your ObjectMapper or Gson objects for copying purposes, and do away without "black magic" and casts.

Object.clone

Object.clone offers a shortcut for creating exact, field-by-field, copies of objects. A lot of the boilerplate otherwise required in copy constructors or static factory methods goes away.

class Car implements Cloneable {

    private String make;
    private int doors;
    private Motor motor;
    private Gearbox gearbox;

    …
    @Override
    public Car clone() {
        try {
            Car c = (Car) super.clone();

            // Already copied by Object.clone
            // c.doors = doors;

            c.motor = motor.clone();
            c.gearbox = gearbox.clone();

            // No need to clone immutable objects
            // c.make = make; 
            
            return c;
        } catch (CloneNotSupportedException e) {
            // Will not happen in this case
            return null;
        }
    }
    …
}

Usage:

Car copy = (Car) originalCar.clone();

Unfortunately the cloning API is poorly designed and should almost always be avoided. Copying arrays is a notable exception where cloning is the preferred method.

Continue reading here: Java: Clone and Cloneable

Simple copy method

class Car {
    …
    public Car copy() {
        Car copy = new Car();
        copy.make = this.make;
        copy.doors = this.doors;
        copy.motor = this.motor.copy();
        copy.gearbox = this.gearbox.copy();
        return copy;
    }
    …
}

As it stands, it's not easy to add a subclass to the above example. If a subclass, say Taxi, where to override Car.copy, it would need to call super.copy() to make sure private fields in Car are copied. super.copy() however, would return a Car object, which would be of little use to Taxi.copy since it needs to return a Taxi object.

If your situation involves a class hierarchy, a better solution would be:

class Car {
    …
    protected void copyFrom(Car car) {
        this.make = car.make;
        this.doors = car.doors;
        this.motor = car.motor;
        this.gearbox = car.gearbox;
    }

    public Car copy() {
        Car copy = new Car();
        copy.copyFrom(this);
        return copy;
    }
    …
}

class Taxi extends Car {
    …
    protected void copyFrom(Taxi taxi) {
        super.copyFrom(taxi);
        this.isAvailable = taxi.isAvailable;
    }

    public Taxi copy() {
        Taxi copy = new Taxi();
        copy.copyFrom(this);
        return copy;
    }
    …
}

In the above example, the public copy method delegates to the protected copyFrom method which can easily be overridden in subclasses.

Builders

If the class has a builder, you could add a from method that initiates the builder with the values from a given object.

class Car {

    public static class Builder {

        private String make;
        private int doors;
        …

        public Builder() {
        }

        public Builder make(String make) {
            this.make = make;
            return this;
        }

        // other builder methods…

        public Builder from(Car toCopyFrom) {
            make(toCopyFrom.make);
            doors(toCopyFrom.doors);
            …
            return this;
        }

        public Car build() {
            return new Car(
                    make,
                    doors,
                    buildMotor(),
                    buildGearbox());
        }
    }

    // Rest of Car class
    …
}

Usage:

Car copy = new Car.Builder()
                  .from(original)
                  .build();

This is precisely what the Immutables library does when generating a builder for value classes.