Difference between Shallow and Deep Copy in
Java
When we call Object.clone(), this method performs a shallow copy of object, by copying data field by field, and if we override this method and by convention first call super.clone(), and then modify some fields to "deep" copy, then we get deep copy of object. This modification is done to ensure that original and cloned object are independent to each other.
In shallow copy main or parent object is copied, but they share same fields or children if fields are modified in one parent object other parent fields have automatic same changes occur,but in deep copy this is not the case.
If our parent object contains only primitive value then shallow copy is good for making clone of any object because in new object value is copied but if parent object contains any other object then only reference value is copied in new parent object and both will point to same object so in that case according to our need we can go for deep copy.
Deep copy is expensive as compare to shallow copy in terms of object creation, because it involves recursive copying of data from other mutable objects, which is part of original object.
Example-
http://www.cs.utexas.edu/~scottm/cs307/handouts/deepCopying.htm
