How do I do a deep copy of a 2d array in Java?
I just got bit by using .clone() on my 2d boolean array, thinking that this was a deep copy.
How can I perform a deep copy of my boolean[][] array?
Should I loop through it and do a series of System.arraycopy 's?
Yes, you should iterate over 2D boolean array in order to deep copy it. Also look at java.util.Arrays#copyOf methods if you are on Java 6.
I would suggest the next code for Java 6:
public static boolean[][] deepCopy(boolean[][] original) {
if (original == null) {
return null;
}
final boolean[][] result = new boolean[original.length][];
for (int i = 0; i < original.length; i++) {
result[i] = Arrays.copyOf(original[i], original[i].length);
// For Java versions prior to Java 6 use the next:
// System.arraycopy(original[i], 0, result[i], 0, original[i].length);
}
return result;
}
I've managed to come up with a recursive array deep copy. It seems to work pretty well even for multi dimensional arrays with varying dimension lengths eg
private static final int[][][] INT_3D_ARRAY = {
{
{1}
},
{
{2, 3},
{4, 5}
},
{
{6, 7, 8},
{9, 10, 11},
{12, 13, 14}
}
};
Here is the utility method.
@SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
public static <T> T[] deepCopyOf(T[] array) {
if (0 >= array.length) return array;
return (T[]) deepCopyOf(
array,
Array.newInstance(array[0].getClass(), array.length),
0);
}
private static Object deepCopyOf(Object array, Object copiedArray, int index) {
if (index >= Array.getLength(array)) return copiedArray;
Object element = Array.get(array, index);
if (element.getClass().isArray()) {
Array.set(copiedArray, index, deepCopyOf(
element,
Array.newInstance(
element.getClass().getComponentType(),
Array.getLength(element)),
0));
} else {
Array.set(copiedArray, index, element);
}
return deepCopyOf(array, copiedArray, ++index);
}
EDIT: Updated the code to work with primitive arrays.
I'm a fan of the Arrays utility. It has a copyOf method that will do a deep copy of a 1-D array for you, so you'd want something like this:
//say you have boolean[][] foo;
boolean[][] nv = new boolean[foo.length][foo[0].length];
for (int i = 0; i < nv.length; i++)
nv[i] = Arrays.copyOf(foo[i], foo[i].length);