java.util.HashMap.clone() Method

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Description

The clone() method is used to return a shallow copy of this HashMap instance.

Declaration

Following is the declaration for java.util.HashMap.clone() method.

public Object clone()

Parameters

NA

Return Value

The method call returns a shallow copy of this map.

Exception

NA

Example

The following example shows the usage of java.util.HashMap.clone()

package com.tutorialspoint;

import java.util.*;

public class HashMapDemo {
   public static void main(String args[]) {
      
      // create two hash maps
      HashMap newmap1 = new HashMap();
      HashMap newmap2 = new HashMap();

      // populate 1st map
      newmap1.put(1, "tutorials");
      newmap1.put(2, "point");
      newmap1.put(3, "is best"); 

      // clone 1st map
      newmap2 = (HashMap)newmap1.clone();

      System.out.println("1st Map: " + newmap1);
      System.out.println("Cloned 2nd Map: " + newmap2);   
   }    
}

Let us compile and run the above program, this will produce the following result.

1st Map: {1=tutorials, 2=point, 3=is best}
Cloned 2nd Map: {1=tutorials, 2=point, 3=is best}