.clone()

In Java, the .clone() method returns a cloned version of the given ArrayList. The cloned version is a shallow copy containing references to all the elements in the original ArrayList, not the elements themselves.

Syntax

arrayList.clone();

• arrayList: The ArrayList to be cloned.

Example

The following example illustrates how to use the .clone() method.

import java.util.ArrayList;

class Main {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    // Creating an ArrayList
    ArrayList<Integer> nums = new ArrayList<>();

    // Adding elements to the ArrayList
    nums.add(12);
    nums.add(34);
    nums.add(56);

    // Printing the ArrayList
    System.out.println("Original ArrayList: " + nums);

    // Cloning the ArrayList
    ArrayList<Integer> clonedNums = (ArrayList<Integer>)nums.clone();

    // Printing the cloned ArrayList
    System.out.println("Cloned ArrayList: " + clonedNums);
  }
}

Since the .clone() method returns an Object, it needs to be cast to ArrayList<Integer> to convert it into an ArrayList of integers.

The above example produces the following output:

Original ArrayList: [12, 34, 56]
Cloned ArrayList: [12, 34, 56]