Cloneable in Java

Cloneable is an interface that is used to create the exact copy of an object. It exists in java.lang package. A class must implement the Cloneable interface if we want to create the clone of the class object.

The clone() method of the Object class is used to create the clone of the object. However, if the class doesn't support the cloneable interface, then the clone() method generates the CloneNotSupportedException.

The syntax of the clone() method is given below.

We can also create a copy of an object by using the new keyword, but it will take a lot of processing time. Therefore, using the clone() method is efficient for this purpose. Consider the following example to create a copy of an object using the clone() method.

Example

public class Student implements Cloneable {
int id;
String name;
Student(int id, String name){
this.id = id;
this.name = name;
}
@Override
protected Object clone() throws CloneNotSupportedException {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
return super.clone();
}

public static void main(String[] args) {
// TODO Auto-generated method stub
Student s = new Student(101, "John");
System.out.println(s.id + " " + s.name);
try {
Student s1 = (Student)s.clone();
System.out.println(s1.id + " " + s1.name);
}catch (Exception e) {
// TODO: handle exception
System.out.println(s.toString());
}
}
}

Output: