Copying Lists

Shallow Copy

A shallow copy creates a new list object but references the same elements.

myList.py

original_list = [1, 2, 3]
shallow_copy = original_list.copy()
print(shallow_copy) 

Output

[1, 2, 3]

Deep Copy

A deep copy creates a new list object and recursively copies all elements.

myList.py

import copy
original_list = [[1, 2], [3, 4]]
deep_copy = copy.deepcopy(original_list)
print(deep_copy) 

Output

[[1, 2], [3, 4]]