Best way to copy from one array to another

Question

When I run the following code, nothing gets copied - what am I doing wrong?

Also, is this the best/most efficient way to copy data from one array to another?

public class A {
    public static void main(String args[]) {
        int a[] = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 };
        int b[] = new int[a.length];

        for (int i = 0; i < a.length; i++) {
            a[i] = b[i];
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

There are lots of solutions:

b = Arrays.copyOf(a, a.length);

Which allocates a new array, copies over the elements of a, and returns the new array.

Or

b = new int[a.length];
System.arraycopy(a, 0, b, 0, b.length);

Which copies the source array content into a destination array that you allocate yourself.

Or

b = a.clone();

which works very much like Arrays.copyOf(). See this thread.

Or the one you posted, if you reverse the direction of the assignment in the loop:

b[i] = a[i]; // NOT a[i] = b[i];

Answer 2

I think your assignment is backwards:

a[i] = b[i];

should be:

b[i] = a[i];

Answer 3

Use Arrays.copyOf my friend.