Why is clone() not in the Clonable Interface?

Hi All,

I want to understand the reason behind designing cloning in java the way it is. Why is the clone method not in the clonable interface? What use does it serve to have it in the Object class instead? Shallow/Deep cloning could've been done the same way we do it today even if the cloning mechanism was entirely with the clonable interface instead of involving the object class.

Please suggest.

Thanks
Gary

Because otherwise there wouldn't be the basic shallow cloning provided by Object.clone() available, and we'd have to write our own.
Or something like that.
It's this clone() that a basic array uses, since they are Cloneable by default.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by garyiskidding

Hi All,

I want to understand the reason behind designing cloning in java the way it is. Why is the clone method not in the clonable interface? What use does it serve to have it in the Object class instead? Shallow/Deep cloning could've been done the same way we do it today even if the cloning mechanism was entirely with the clonable interface instead of involving the object class.

Please suggest.

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The clone() method in the Object class does the allocation of a new object and a bitwise copying of the source object (shallow copying). It needs to be protected because a user might not want to publish this method to the world. If that method were defined in an interface the method needs to be public. I know, it's a bit of a hassle but this implementation gives the user the most freedom (and needs a bit more coding ;-)

kind regards,

Jos

The Clonable interface is just a way of marking a class to say the the class can be cloned. There are some classes that look at an object's type to see if it is clonable. Implementing this interface would say that it was.

Hmm.. i am now convinced with the fact that that the clone() method should be protected and still be able to shallow-clone.

Thanks
Everyone.