What is the performance difference between shallow and deep copy in programming?

What is the performance difference between shallow and deep copy in programming?

Shallow copy creates a new object but inserts references into it to the objects found in the original. Deep copy creates a new object and recursively copies all objects found in the original, leading to more memory usage.

Which one is faster, shallow copy or deep copy?

Shallow copy is generally faster because it only copies references, while deep copy involves more overhead due to the recursive copying of all objects.

Can you give me an example of when to use each?

Use shallow copy when you want a new object but can share the inner objects. Use deep copy when you need a completely independent object.

What are the potential issues with using shallow copy?

The main issue is that changes to mutable objects in the original will affect the shallow copy since they share references.