
Points to Remember
- A shallow copy creates a new compound object and then adds a reference to the object found in the original.
- A deep copy creates a new compound object and then adds a reference to the object found in the original.
- We can copy arbitrary objects (including custom classes) with the copy module.
What is the difference between a deep copy and a shallow copy?
Difference Between Shallow Copy and Deep Copy
- Definition. Shallow copy is the process of constructing a new collection object and then populating it with references to the child objects found in the original.
- Functionality. ...
- Copying process. ...
- Conclusion. ...
How to perform a deep copy?
The basic idea behind deep copy in java is:
- There is a Java object which is needed to be cloned (deeply).
- First step is to mark the Model object as Serializable so that the object can converted into a Stream so that it can be written in a file/stream ond can ...
- When the object is read back, we get a deep clone of the original object.
What does deep copy mean?
Deep copy is a process in which the copying process occurs recursively. It means first constructing a new collection object and then recursively populating it with copies of the child objects found in the original. In case of deep copy, a copy of object is copied in other object.
What is deep copy and shallow copy in Java?
Explain with an example in Java.
- Example
- Output
- Shallow copy. Whenever you try to create a copy of an object using the shallow copy, all fields of the original objects are copied exactly.
- Deep copy. Whenever you try to create a copy of an object, in the deep copy all fields of the original objects are copied exactly, in addition to this, if ...
- To perform field copy
- Example. ...
- Output

What is deep copy with example?
A deep copy creates a new object and recursively adds the copies of nested objects present in the original elements. Let's continue with example 2. However, we are going to create deep copy using deepcopy() function present in copy module.
What is the difference between copy and deep copy?
copy() create reference to original object. If you change copied object - you change the original object. . deepcopy() creates new object and does real copying of original object to new one. Changing new deepcopied object doesn't affect original object.
What is deep copy and why?
A deep copy copies all fields, and makes copies of dynamically allocated memory pointed to by the fields. A deep copy occurs when an object is copied along with the objects to which it refers. Shallow Copy.
What is the difference between a shallow and a deep copy?
In Shallow copy, a copy of the original object is stored and only the reference address is finally copied. In Deep copy, the copy of the original object and the repetitive copies both are stored.
How do you do a deep copy?
To make a deep copy, use the deepcopy() function of the copy module. In a deep copy, copies are inserted instead of references to objects, so changing one does not change the other. The following is an example of applying the deepcopy() function to a slice.
Why would you want a shallow copy?
Shallow copies are useful when you want to make copies of classes that share one large underlying data structure or set of data.
What is a lazy copy?
A lazy copy is a combination of both shallow copy and Deep Copy. When initially copying an object, a (fast) shallow copy is used. A counter is also used to track how many objects share the data.
What does deep copy mean in C?
A deep copy, in contrast, means that you copy an entire object (struct). If it has members that can be copied shallow or deep, you also make a deep copy of them.
What does a shallow copy mean?
A shallow copy of an object is a copy whose properties share the same references (point to the same underlying values) as those of the source object from which the copy was made.
Why do we need deep copy in Java?
Whenever we need own copy not to use default implementation we call it as deep copy, whenever we need deep copy of the object we need to implement according to our need. So for deep copy we need to ensure all the member class also implement the Cloneable interface and override the clone() method of the object class.
What is the difference between shallow copy and deep copy Mcq?
Explanation: In shallow copy, the base address of the objects are copied. In deep copy, the base address of the objects are not copied. Note that memberwise copy is another name for shallow copy. 4.
What Does Deep Copy Mean?
Deep copy, in C#, refers to a technique by which a copy of an object is created such that it contains copies of both instance members and the objects pointed to by reference members. Deep copy is intended to copy all the elements of an object, which include directly referenced elements (of value type) and the indirectly referenced elements of a reference type that holds a reference (pointer) to a memory location that contains data rather than containing the data itself.
Techopedia Explains Deep Copy
Deep copy differs from shallow copy in the manner in which the reference type members of the object are copied. While copying the field members of value type in both cases, a bit-by-bit copy of field is performed.
Shallow Copy
In shallow copy, an object is created by simply copying the data of all variables of the original object. This works well if none of the variables of the object are defined in the heap section of memory .
Deep Copy
In Deep copy, an object is created by copying data of all variables and it also allocates similar memory resources with the same value to the object. In order to perform Deep copy, we need to explicitly define the copy constructor and assign dynamic memory as well if required.
Syntax of Python deepcopy
There are two types of copies Shallow Copy and deepcopy that a user can perform in python depending on the need or purpose of the use of that copy.
How deepcopy works?
A simple is presented where we have performed a deepcopy operation on a list and then altered the copied list and printed the actual values and copied values in the list to show a clear picture of the functionality of the deepcopy object.
Conclusion
We have seen in detail about the Python deepcopy that is most popular in the python programming platform because of its importance in working with duplicates or copies of original objects where the user has the ability to create a duplicate copy of an actual object and make it independent from the original object in order to perform multiple operations or functions using the duplicate copy.
Recommended Articles
This is a guide to Python deepcopy. Here we discuss the introduction to Python deepcopy , how does it work along with respective examples. You may also have a look at the following articles to learn more –
Copy an Object in Python
In Python, we use = operator to create a copy of an object. You may think that this creates a new object; it doesn't. It only creates a new variable that shares the reference of the original object.
Copy Module
We use the copy module of Python for shallow and deep copy operations. Suppose, you need to copy the compound list say x. For example:
Shallow Copy
A shallow copy creates a new object which stores the reference of the original elements.
Deep Copy
A deep copy creates a new object and recursively adds the copies of nested objects present in the original elements.
