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How do I perform a deep clone using Serializable?
Java Interview Questions for Cloning and Cloneable
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How do I perform a deep clone using Serializable?
The clone() method of Object performs a shallow copy of an object. This means that primitive fields are copied, but objects within the cloned object are not copied. Rather, the references within the new object point to the objects referenced by the original object. This can sometimes lead to unexpected results. Sometimes a deep copy of an object is needed. In a deep copy, rather than references in the new object pointing to the same objects as the original class, the references point to new objects (whose values have been copied over).
A typical way of implementing a deep clone is to go through a class and write code to create new objects and copy over all of the values to these new objects. This can be a time-consuming process if the object being cloned is complicated. A simple way of performing a deep clone is for all of the classes that make up a class to implement the Serializable interface. If this is the case, we can serialize all of the values of the object and then deserialize all of these values to a new object. This in essence is a shortcut to performing a deep copy, since all of the values get copied over into new objects
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