Deep copy vs Shallow Copy

Question

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What is the difference between a deep copy and a shallow copy?

What is the difference between deep and shallow copy. What type of a copy does a copy constructor do?

Answer 1

Shallow copy:

Some members of the copy may reference the same objects as the original:

class X
{
private:
    int i;
    int *pi;
public:
    X()
        : pi(new int)
    { }
    X(const X& copy)   // <-- copy ctor
        : i(copy.i), pi(copy.pi)
    { }
};

Here, the pi member of the original and copied X object will both point to the same int.

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Deep copy:

All members of the original are cloned (recursively, if necessary). There are no shared objects:

class X
{
private:
    int i;
    int *pi;
public:
    X()
        : pi(new int)
    { }
    X(const X& copy)   // <-- copy ctor
        : i(copy.i), pi(new int(*copy.pi))  // <-- note this line in particular!
    { }
};

Here, the pi member of the original and copied X object will point to different int objects, but both of these have the same value.

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_{The default copy constructor (which is automatically provided if you don't provide one yourself) creates only shallow copies.}

Correction: Several comments below have correctly pointed out that it is wrong to say that the default copy constructor always performs a shallow copy (or a deep copy, for that matter). Whether a type's copy constructor creates a shallow copy, or deep copy, or something in-between the two, depends on the combination of each member's copy behaviour; a member's type's copy constructor can be made to do whatever it wants, after all.

Here's what section 12.8, paragraph 8 of the 1998 C++ standard says about the above code examples:

The implicitly defined copy constructor for class X performs a memberwise copy of its subobjects. [...] Each subobject is copied in the manner appropriate to its type: [...] [I]f the subobject is of scalar type, the builtin assignment operator is used.