University of Central Florida (UCF) COP3330 Object Oriented Programming Final Practice Exam

A shallow copy distinguishes itself by duplicating the object references rather than creating independent copies of the objects themselves. When you perform a shallow copy, the new object will reference the same elements as the original, meaning that changes made to the referenced objects in either the original or the copied object will affect both.

This behavior contrasts with a deep copy, where a new object is created with entirely new copies of the objects contained within the original, ensuring that changes to one will not impact the other.

Understanding this distinction is pivotal in object-oriented programming, especially when managing mutable objects, as it informs how data is shared and modified across different instances. The concept of references versus actual object duplication is foundational in the use of collections, data structures, and when implementing functionalities that manipulate or interact with object properties.