Hello all,

My first question here so be gentle.

I would like arguments for the following code:

public class Example {
    private String name;
    private int age;

    ...

    // copy constructor here
    public Example(Example e) {
        this.name = e.name; // accessing a private attribute of an instance
        this.age = e.age;
    }

    ...
}

I believe this breaks the modularity of the instance passed to the copy construct. This is what I believe to be correct:

public class Example {
    private String name;
    private int age;

    ...
    // copy constructor here
    public Example(Example e) {
        this.setName(e.getName());
        this.setAge(e.getAge());
    }

    ...
}

A friend has exposed a valid point of view, saying that in the copy construct we should create the object as fast as possible. And adding getter/setter methods would result in unnecessary overhead.

I stand on a crossroad. Can you shed some light?