What aspects should be considered when creating an immutable class object copy?

For an immutable class, creating a copy of an object usually does not require deep cloning, since the state of the object does not change after creation.

Main aspects:

• If the class is truly immutable, you can simply return a reference to the same object, as it will not change.
• If you need to create a new object with a modified state, you typically create a new instance with the desired parameters.
• It is important that all fields are final and inherently immutable themselves (e.g., String, primitives, or immutable collections).

Example:

public final class ImmutablePoint {
    private final int x;
    private final int y;

    public ImmutablePoint(int x, int y) {
        this.x = x;
        this.y = y;
    }

    public ImmutablePoint copy() {
        // You can simply return this, as the object is immutable
        return this;
    }

    public ImmutablePoint withX(int newX) {
        return new ImmutablePoint(newX, this.y);
    }
}

Thus, a copy of an immutable object is either not needed or is created as a new object with a new state.