What are the best practices for copying arrays in programming?

What are the best practices for copying arrays in programming?

When copying arrays, it's important to consider shallow vs deep copying. Shallow copying duplicates the references, while deep copying duplicates the actual elements.

Can you give me an example of shallow and deep copying?

Sure! In JavaScript, you can use slice() for shallow copying: let newArray = oldArray.slice(); For deep copying, you can use JSON.parse(JSON.stringify(oldArray));.

Are there performance implications between the two methods?

Yes, deep copying is generally slower and more memory-intensive than shallow copying, especially for large arrays.

What about copying arrays in Python?

In Python, you can use slicing for shallow copies: new_list = old_list[:], and for deep copies, you can use the copy module: import copy; new_list = copy.deepcopy(old_list).