Copying getters/setters for array/Collection fields

[Pr0methean]

For array and Collection<> fields, I often have to write my own getter and setter just to make a defensive copy. Why not have an option in @Getter and @Setter to do that? For example, this:

@Getter(copy=true)
@Setter(copy=true, includeFinalCollections = true)
public class Example {
  private String[] strings = new String[10];
  private final String[] finalStrings = new String[10];
  private final List<Object> objects = new ArrayList<>();
}

might become this:

public class Example {
  private String[] strings = new String[10];
  private final String[] finalStrings = new String[10];
  private final List<Object> objects = new ArrayList<>();

  public String[] getStrings() {
    return strings.clone();
  }

  public void setStrings(String[] strings) {
    if (strings.length == this.strings.length) {
      System.arraycopy(strings, 0, this.strings, 0, strings.length);
    } else {
      this.strings = strings.clone();
    }
  }

  public String[] getFinalStrings() {
    return finalStrings.clone();
  }

  public void setFinalStrings(String[] finalStrings) {
    if (finalStrings.length != this.finalStrings.length) {
      throw new IllegalArgumentException("New finalStrings must be same length");
    }
    System.arraycopy(finalStrings, 0, this.finalStrings, 0, finalStrings.length);
  }

  public List<Object> getObjects() {
    return new ArrayList(objects);
  }

  public void setObjects(Collection<? extends Object> objects) {
    this.objects.clear();
    this.objects.addAll(objects);
  }
}

[Reinier Zwitserloot]

clone() usually doesn't work, so this feature would require adding a complex mechanism for lombok to figure out _HOW_ to make a defensive copy. Also, making defensive copies of large data structures then means that .get() is pragmatically speaking not a near zero impact side effect free method which is  bad.

Two good reasons not to try to fit this into lombok.