Data Structures and Algorithms in Java[1].pdf - Fulvio Frisone

Cloning an Array
If instead, we wanted to create an exact copy of the array, a, and assign that array
to the array variable, b, we should write
b = a.clone();
which copies all of the cells of a into a new array and assigns b to point to that
new array. In fact, the clone method is a built-in method of every Java object,
which makes an exact copy of that object. In this case, if we then write
b[3] = 5;
then the new (copied) array will have its cell at index 3, assigned the value 5, but
a[3] will remain unchanged. We illustrate this point in Figure 1.8.
Figure 1.8: An illustration of cloning of array objects.
We show the result of setting "b[3] = 5;" after
previously setting "b = a.clone();".
We should stress that the cells of an array are copied when we clone it. If the cells
are a base type, like int, their values are copied. But if the cells are object
references, then those references are copied. This means that there are now two
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