How do you make a deep copy of an object?

Question

It\'s a bit difficult to implement a deep object copy function. What steps you take to ensure the original object and the cloned one share no reference?

Answer 1

For Spring Framework users. Using class org.springframework.util.SerializationUtils:

@SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
public static <T extends Serializable> T clone(T object) {
     return (T) SerializationUtils.deserialize(SerializationUtils.serialize(object));
}

Answer 2

Using Jackson to serialize and deserialize the object. This implementation does not require the object to implement the Serializable class.

  <T> T clone(T object, Class<T> clazzType) throws IOException {

    final ObjectMapper objMapper = new ObjectMapper();
    String jsonStr= objMapper.writeValueAsString(object);

    return objMapper.readValue(jsonStr, clazzType);

  }

Answer 3

1)

public static Object deepClone(Object object) {
   try {
     ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
     ObjectOutputStream oos = new ObjectOutputStream(baos);
     oos.writeObject(object);
     ByteArrayInputStream bais = new ByteArrayInputStream(baos.toByteArray());
     ObjectInputStream ois = new ObjectInputStream(bais);
     return ois.readObject();
   }
   catch (Exception e) {
     e.printStackTrace();
     return null;
   }
 }

2)

    // (1) create a MyPerson object named Al
    MyAddress address = new MyAddress("Vishrantwadi ", "Pune", "India");
    MyPerson al = new MyPerson("Al", "Arun", address);

    // (2) make a deep clone of Al
    MyPerson neighbor = (MyPerson)deepClone(al);

Here your MyPerson and MyAddress class must implement serilazable interface

Answer 4

BeanUtils does a really good job deep cloning beans.

BeanUtils.cloneBean(obj);

Answer 5

One very easy and simple approach is to use Jackson JSON to serialize complex Java Object to JSON and read it back.

From https://github.com/FasterXML/jackson-databind/#5-minute-tutorial-streaming-parser-generator :

JsonFactory f = mapper.getFactory(); // may alternatively construct directly too

// First: write simple JSON output
File jsonFile = new File("test.json");
JsonGenerator g = f.createGenerator(jsonFile);
// write JSON: { "message" : "Hello world!" }
g.writeStartObject();
g.writeStringField("message", "Hello world!");
g.writeEndObject();
g.close();

// Second: read file back
JsonParser p = f.createParser(jsonFile);

JsonToken t = p.nextToken(); // Should be JsonToken.START_OBJECT
t = p.nextToken(); // JsonToken.FIELD_NAME
if ((t != JsonToken.FIELD_NAME) || !"message".equals(p.getCurrentName())) {
   // handle error
}
t = p.nextToken();
if (t != JsonToken.VALUE_STRING) {
   // similarly
}
String msg = p.getText();
System.out.printf("My message to you is: %s!\n", msg);
p.close();

Answer 6

Deep copying can only be done with each class's consent. If you have control over the class hierarchy then you can implement the clonable interface and implement the Clone method. Otherwise doing a deep copy is impossible to do safely because the object may also be sharing non-data resources (e.g. database connections). In general however deep copying is considered bad practice in the Java environment and should be avoided via the appropriate design practices.