Clone Must Be Public
ID |
java.clone_must_be_public |
Severity |
info |
Remediation Complexity |
trivial |
Remediation Risk |
low |
Remediation Effort |
low |
Resource |
Reliability |
Language |
Java |
Tags |
clone, reliability |
Description
Reports clone() methods that are not declared public. The clone() method should always be accessible to callers.
Rationale
Restricting the visibility of clone() (to protected or private) prevents callers from creating copies through the standard Cloneable mechanism. Since Object.clone() is protected, subclasses that override it should widen access to public.
// Bad — restricted visibility
protected Object clone() throws CloneNotSupportedException {
return super.clone();
}Remediation
Declare the clone() method as public:
// Good
public Object clone() throws CloneNotSupportedException {
return super.clone();
}