Shallow vs Deep copies [was Re: python assignment]

[Jim Richardson]

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On Tue, 22 Jul 2003 22:46:56 -0400,
 Tim Peters <tim.one at comcast.net> wrote:
 
> The rule that the object in question is never copied.  There are no
> exceptions to this.  Copying an object requires invoking some method
> of the object, or applying some function to the object.  For example,
> d.copy() returns a (shallow) copy of a dict d, and L[:] returns a
> (shallow) copy of a list L.


To clarify for me please.

A shallow copy of an object, returns an object that contains references
to objects within the copied object, yes? 

so a list consisting of [1,2,a,"a"] when copied shallowly, will return
exactly that, but when copied deeply, will reture [1,2,"whatever a
points to","a"] yes? 

If I understand the above correctly.... how deep does a deep copy go?
can you vary the depth? Or is it binary, shallow or deep? 

Thanks.

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-- 
Jim Richardson         http://www.eskimo.com/~warlock

Linux, because eventually, you grow up enough to be trusted with a fork()