What is the use of cloneable interface in java?

Question

What is the use of implementing a cloneable interface as it is a marker interface?

I can always make a public Object clone() method in my class. What is the actual purpose of cloneable interface?

Answer 1

That's because the clone() method throws CloneNotSupportedException if your object is not Cloneable.

You should take a look at the documentation for clone() method.

Following is how clone() method is declared in the class Object:

protected Object clone() throws CloneNotSupportedException

Note:

Also, it's been realized that Clone is broken. This answer here in SO explains why and how you can avoid using it.

Answer 2

Making Cloneable a marker interface was a mistake.

That said, the one thing it does is "enable" the default implementation of clone() in Object. If you don't implement Cloneable then invoking super.clone() will throw a CloneNotSupportedException.