Make copy of an array

Question

I have an array a which is constantly being updated. Let's say a = [1,2,3,4,5]. I need to make an exact duplicate copy of a and call it b. If a were to change to [6,7,8,9,10], b should still be [1,2,3,4,5]. What is the best way to do this? I tried a for loop like:

for(int i=0; i<5; i++) {     b[i]=a[i]; } 

but that doesn't seem to work correctly. Please don't use advanced terms like deep copy, etc., because I do not know what that means.

Answer 1

You can try using System.arraycopy()

int[] src  = new int[]{1,2,3,4,5}; int[] dest = new int[5];  System.arraycopy( src, 0, dest, 0, src.length ); 

But, probably better to use clone() in most cases:

int[] src = ... int[] dest = src.clone(); 

Answer 2

you can use

int[] a = new int[]{1,2,3,4,5}; int[] b = a.clone(); 

as well.