Copying sets Java

Solution 1:

Another way to do this is to use the copy constructor:

Collection<E> oldSet = ...
TreeSet<E> newSet = new TreeSet<E>(oldSet);

Or create an empty set and add the elements:

Collection<E> oldSet = ...
TreeSet<E> newSet = new TreeSet<E>();
newSet.addAll(oldSet);

Unlike clone these allow you to use a different set class, a different comparator, or even populate from some other (non-set) collection type.

^{Note that the result of copying a Set is a new Set containing references to the objects that are elements if the original Set. The element objects themselves are not copied or cloned. This conforms with the way that the Java Collection APIs are designed to work: they don't copy the element objects.}

Solution 2:

With Java 8 you can use stream and collect to copy the items:

Set<Item> newSet = oldSet.stream().collect(Collectors.toSet());

Or you can collect to an ImmutableSet (if you know that the set should not change):

Set<Item> newSet = oldSet.stream().collect(ImmutableSet.toImmutableSet());