How to clone a Hashmap

[Gaurav Chikara]

Dear All

I have a requirement to have a backup copy of orginal HashMap so that when some deletion,addition is done on original HashMap I can use a backup Map to track it

My Map structure is like this

Map
|
key-----value (nested Map)
|
key-----value (nested Map)
|
key-----value (List)


I am not able to have a backup copy as whenever something happens to original copy backup copy is also getting affected with same operation

If anyone can please help as I am really stuck

[Henry Wong]

Gaurav Chikara wrote:I am not able to have a backup copy as whenever something happens to original copy backup copy is also getting affected with same operation

If anyone can please help as I am really stuck

Well, it depends on what you mean by "something happens". If you mean that the items get deleted or added, then it should work -- meaning that your clone will have the old structure.

If you mean changes to the key or value, then it won't work -- as the clone is only a shallow copy. You will need to copy it (via a loop, and possibly recursively), if you want a deep copy.

Henry

[Bert Bates]

since this isn't on the exam, let's move it to 'general'...