Is it possible to use clon() method without overriding it

I am having some trouble with my teacher, we have to master the concepts of java in aabout one month, he is saying that following is possible:

so in Java every class is inheriting from Object class, this class provides us with methods like protected Object clone() for example: Now let´s say that we have class Car

// later in main:

Car mycar=new Car();
//he is saying now that  following is possible:
Car yourCar=(Car) mycar.clone();

but every article online says that this is not possible, even when i try to compile it it's not possible, firstly because the method is protected and secondly because it would throw an exeption

is there something that I am missing ?

Solution

Yes, you can use .clone() without overriding it as long as the class implements Cloneable.

Here's an example:

class Car implements Cloneable {
  String name;
  public Car(String n) {
    name = n;
  }

  public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
    Car c1 = new Car("Lightning McQueen");
    Car c2 = (Car) c1.clone();
    System.out.println(c2.name);
  }
}

Here's the description of the default behavior of clone() when the class implements Cloneable but does not override clone():

this method creates a new instance of the class of this object and initializes all its fields with exactly the contents of the corresponding fields of this object, as if by assignment; the contents of the fields are not themselves cloned. Thus, this method performs a "shallow copy" of this object, not a "deep copy" operation.