What are some use cases for shallow copying in programming?

What are some use cases for shallow copying in programming?

Shallow copying is useful when you want to duplicate an object but only need to copy the top-level properties. For example, in JavaScript, using Object.assign() creates a shallow copy of an object.

Can you give me an example of shallow copying in Python?

Sure! In Python, you can use the copy module. For instance, import copy; new_list = copy.copy(original_list) creates a shallow copy of original_list.

What are the limitations of shallow copying?

The main limitation is that it doesn't copy nested objects. If the original object contains references to other objects, those references are copied, not the objects themselves.

When should I use shallow copy instead of deep copy?

Use shallow copy when you only need to duplicate the top-level structure and are okay with shared references for nested objects. It's more memory efficient.