java how expensive is a method call

Would it be more optimal for me to just copy and paste the two lines in my clear() method into the constructor instead of calling the actual method?

The compiler can perform that optimization. And so can the JVM. The terminology used by compiler writer and JVM authors is "inline expansion".

If so how much of a difference does it make?

Measure it. Often, you'll find that it makes no difference. And if you believe that this is a performance hotspot, you're looking in the wrong place; that's why you'll need to measure it.

What if my constructor made 10 method calls with each one simply setting an instance variable to a value?

Again, that depends on the generated bytecode and any runtime optimizations performed by the Java Virtual machine. If the compiler/JVM can inline the method calls, it will perform the optimization to avoid the overhead of creating new stack frames at runtime.

What's the best programming practice?

Avoiding premature optimization. The best practice is to write readable and well-designed code, and then optimize for the performance hotspots in your application.

What everyone else has said about optimization is absolutely true.

There is no reason from a performance point of view to inline the method. If it's a performance issue, the JIT in your JVM will inline it. In java, method calls are so close to free that it isn't worth thinking about it.

That being said, there's a different issue here. Namely, it is bad programming practice to call an overrideable method (i.e., one that is not final, static, or private) from the constructor. (Effective Java, 2nd Ed., p. 89 in the item titled "Design and document for inheritance or else prohibit it")

What happens if someone adds a subclass of BinarySearchTree called LoggingBinarySearchTree that overrides all public methods with code like:

public void clear(){  this.callLog.addCall("clear");  super.clear();}

Then the LoggingBinarySearchTree will never be constructable! The issue is that this.callLog will be null when the BinarySearchTree constructor is running, but the clear that gets called is the overridden one, and you'll get a NullPointerException.

Note that Java and C++ differ here: in C++, a superclass constructor that calls a virtual method ends up calling the one defined in the superclass, not the overridden one. People switching between the two languages sometimes forget this.

Given that, I think it's probably cleaner in your case to inline the clear method when called from the constructor, but in general in Java you should go ahead and make all the method calls you want.

I would definitely leave it as is. What if you change the clear() logic? It would be impractical to find all the places where you copied the 2 lines of code.