Copy Constructor with Shallow Copy

[Wnt2bsleepin]

I am supposed to make a constructor that makes a shallow copy. Can anyone elaborate on specifically that is? What makes it different than a regular copy?

[Daimoth]

A shallow copy merely copies the reference to data, whereas a deep copy duplicates the data itself.

A related term is the lazy copy, which takes advantage of the speed of the shallow copy when at all possible, and becomes a deep copy when necessary.

If you change the value of a shallow copied object, both will reflect the change; not so with a deep copy, which are independent.

All objects have a clone() method which returns a deep copy of the object, apparently.