📘 Lesson  ·  Lesson 82

Deep Copy vs Shallow Copy

Two Kinds of Copy

💡 At a Glance

A shallow copy copies the outer object but shares inner objects. A deep copy copies everything independently.

Shallow Copy

Python
import copy
a = [[1, 2], [3, 4]]
b = copy.copy(a)     # shallow
b[0][0] = 99
print(a)             # a also changed!
[[99, 2], [3, 4]]

Deep Copy

Python
import copy
a = [[1, 2], [3, 4]]
b = copy.deepcopy(a)  # deep
b[0][0] = 99
print(a)              # a is safe
[[1, 2], [3, 4]]

Summary

  • Shallow copy shares nested objects — changes affect both.
  • Deep copy duplicates everything — fully independent.
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