为什么在克隆 java 中的 object 时不调用构造函数

Question

Why is the constructor is not called while cloning an object in java?

Animal a = new Animal();
Animal b = (Animal)a.clone(); // This will not invoke Animal's constructor

If an object is created which is referenced by variable b then there would be some memory allocation and that should also involve calling the constructor, right?

But the documentation says, cloning an object does not involve calling the constructor calling at all. Why?

Answer 1

Also I cannot descibe why it is like it is. It seems that Java is just using another functionality to clone and make a copy of an object in constrast to creating new objects via new keyword. Using clone() means that the clone is created and all values are copied and the references are also copied. So clone() does not produce new objects with new references of the referenced objects. Maybe clone() is a kind of constructor?