Why can't I duplicate a slice with `copy()`?

Question

I need to make a copy of a slice in Go and reading the docs there is a copy function at my disposal.

The copy built-in function copies elements from a so

Answer 1

Another simple way to do this is by using append which will allocate the slice in the process.

arr := []int{1, 2, 3}
tmp := append([]int(nil), arr...)  // Notice the ... splat
fmt.Println(tmp)
fmt.Println(arr)

Output (as expected):

[1 2 3]
[1 2 3]

So a shorthand for copying array arr would be append([]int(nil), arr...)

https://play.golang.org/p/sr_4ofs5GW