Weird copy constructor

Question

I have two classes: AbstractMailingDirections and DirectionLoad. Both have a copy constructor as follows:

public AbstractMailingDirections(AbstractMailingDirections toCopy) {
    this.message = toCopy.message;
    this.defaultDirection = new DirectionLoad(toCopy.defaultDirection);
    for (final DirectionLoad dls : toCopy.directionLoads) {
        this.directionLoads.add(new DirectionLoad(dls));
    }
}

and

public DirectionLoad(DirectionLoad toCopy) {
    this.direction = toCopy.direction;
    this.transportationContract = toCopy.transportationContract;
    this.pickUpTime = toCopy.pickUpTime;
    this.acceptanceTime = toCopy.acceptanceTime;
    this.acceptanceLocation = toCopy.acceptanceLocation;
    this.information = toCopy.information;
}

Now when I call the MailingDirections copy constructor (which is just super(toCopy)) I sometimes don't get fields of the defaultDirection copied. Or not all of them. And using a Eclipse debugger is even stranger:

here I have clicked on the AbstractMailingDirections to be copied. See how defaultDirection.acceptanceTime is 17:00 in the toString print but shows up null in the field listing. If I click the defaultDirection, it's toString print will show the acceptanceTime field as null.

This is driving me nuts. Any ideas what could be causing this?

Answer 1

Are these Hibernate entities (or JPA or similar)? In that case accessing the fields might brake the lazy loading magic & accessing it through getters might fix it.