cloneable

[Vrinda]

Hello,
Can you throw more light on the cloneable interface in Java.
** Its significance
** Applicability
Preferably with an example.
Vrinda

[Anonymous]

The clonable interface is implemented by any class that supports or overrides clone() method. The Clone interface declares no method. A class can implement Clone() interface to indicate that it is legal to make a field for field copy of the instance of that class using Object.clone() method.
Clone() interface has the following 3 direct Sub-Interfaces:
1>AclEntry - Used for representing an entry of WIN NT Access Contol List. ACL is used to specify user permissions in WIN NT.
2>AttributedCharacterIterator - to allows iteration through both text and related attribute information.
3>CharacterIterator - defines a protocol for bidirectional iteration over text.
Hope this helps !
Regds,
Milind

[Ajith Kallambella]

Vrinda,
As for the Certification exam, it is very important to remember Arrays can be cast to a clonable interface. As Milind said, the Cloneable interface has no methods. It serves as a kind of tag to help JVM detect legal clones.
Expect questions in the exam where an array is cast to a cloneable interface.
<PRE>
public class CastArray
{
public static void main( String[] s)
{
String firstQuarter[] = {"Jan", "Feb", "March"};
Cloneable c = firstQuarter ;
}
}
</PRE>
Well, this code does nothing, however it compiles fine
In the real world, Cloneable can be a very useful interface. You can implement "deep copy" of the objects in your system by using the Cloneable interface and providing a clone() method implementation in your objects. Remember when you say Obj1 = Obj2, you are only copying references. Unless you implement your own cloning, there is no way to produce replicates of your objects with state information.
Hope this helps.
Ajith