What exactly is the difference between shallow cop

Question

import copy

a=”deepak”
b=1,2,3,4
c=[1,2,3,4]
d={1:10,2:20,3:30}

a1=copy.copy(a)
b1=copy.copy(b)
c1=copy.copy(c)
d1=copy.copy(d)


print "immutable - id(a)==id(a1)",id(a)==id(a1)
print "immutable   - id(b)==id(b1)",id(b)==id(b1)
print "mutable - id(c)==id(c1)",id(c)==id(c1)
print "mutable   - id(d)==id(d1)",id(d)==id(d1)

I get the following results -

immutable - id(a)==id(a1) True
immutable   - id(b)==id(b1) True
mutable - id(c)==id(c1) False
mutable   - id(d)==id(d1) False

If I perform deepcopy -

a1=copy.deepcopy(a)
b1=copy.deepcopy(b)
c1=copy.deepcopy(c)
d1=copy.deepcopy(d)

results are the same -

immutable - id(a)==id(a1) True
immutable   - id(b)==id(b1) True
mutable - id(c)==id(c1) False
mutable   - id(d)==id(d1) False

If I work on assignment operations -

a1=a
b1=b
c1=c
d1=d

then results are -

immutable - id(a)==id(a1) True
immutable   - id(b)==id(b1) True
mutable - id(c)==id(c1) True
mutable   - id(d)==id(d1) True

Can somebody explain what exactly makes a difference between the copies? Is it something related to mutable & immutable objects? If so, can you please explain it to me?

Answer 1

>>lst=[1,2,3,4,5]

a=lst

b=lst[:]

b [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

a [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

lst is b False

lst is a True

id(lst) 46263192

id(a) 46263192 ------> See here id of a and id of lst is same so its called deep copy and even boolean answer is true

id(b) 46263512 ------> See here id of b and id of lst is not same so its called shallow copy and even boolean answer is false although output looks same.

Answer 2

Below code demonstrates the difference between assignment, shallow copy using the copy method, shallow copy using the (slice) [:] and the deepcopy. Below example uses nested lists there by making the differences more evident.

from copy import deepcopy

########"List assignment (does not create a copy) ############
l1 = [1,2,3, [4,5,6], [7,8,9]]
l1_assigned = l1

print(l1)
print(l1_assigned)

print(id(l1), id(l1_assigned))
print(id(l1[3]), id(l1_assigned[3]))
print(id(l1[3][0]), id(l1_assigned[3][0]))

l1[3][0] = 100
l1.pop(4)
l1.remove(1)


print(l1)
print(l1_assigned)
print("###################################")

########"List copy using copy method (shallow copy)############

l2 = [1,2,3, [4,5,6], [7,8,9]]
l2_copy = l2.copy()

print(l2)
print(l2_copy)

print(id(l2), id(l2_copy))
print(id(l2[3]), id(l2_copy[3]))
print(id(l2[3][0]), id(l2_copy[3][0]))
l2[3][0] = 100
l2.pop(4)
l2.remove(1)


print(l2)
print(l2_copy)

print("###################################")

########"List copy using slice (shallow copy)############

l3 = [1,2,3, [4,5,6], [7,8,9]]
l3_slice = l3[:]

print(l3)
print(l3_slice)

print(id(l3), id(l3_slice))
print(id(l3[3]), id(l3_slice[3]))
print(id(l3[3][0]), id(l3_slice[3][0]))

l3[3][0] = 100
l3.pop(4)
l3.remove(1)


print(l3)
print(l3_slice)

print("###################################")

########"List copy using deepcopy ############

l4 = [1,2,3, [4,5,6], [7,8,9]]
l4_deep = deepcopy(l4)

print(l4)
print(l4_deep)

print(id(l4), id(l4_deep))
print(id(l4[3]), id(l4_deep[3]))
print(id(l4[3][0]), id(l4_deep[3][0]))

l4[3][0] = 100
l4.pop(4)
l4.remove(1)

print(l4)
print(l4_deep)
print("##########################")
print(l4[2], id(l4[2]))
print(l4_deep[3], id(l4_deep[3]))

print(l4[2][0], id(l4[2][0]))
print(l4_deep[3][0], id(l4_deep[3][0]))

Answer 3

Normal assignment operations will simply point the new variable towards the existing object. The docs explain the difference between shallow and deep copies:

The difference between shallow and deep copying is only relevant for compound objects (objects that contain other objects, like lists or class instances):

• A shallow copy constructs a new compound object and then (to the extent possible) inserts references into it to the objects found in the original.

• A deep copy constructs a new compound object and then, recursively, inserts copies into it of the objects found in the original.

Here's a little demonstration:

import copy

a = [1, 2, 3]
b = [4, 5, 6]
c = [a, b]

Using normal assignment operatings to copy:

d = c

print id(c) == id(d)          # True - d is the same object as c
print id(c[0]) == id(d[0])    # True - d[0] is the same object as c[0]

Using a shallow copy:

d = copy.copy(c)

print id(c) == id(d)          # False - d is now a new object
print id(c[0]) == id(d[0])    # True - d[0] is the same object as c[0]

Using a deep copy:

d = copy.deepcopy(c)

print id(c) == id(d)          # False - d is now a new object
print id(c[0]) == id(d[0])    # False - d[0] is now a new object