How to copy a dictionary and only edit the copy

Question

Can someone please explain this to me? This doesn\'t make any sense to me.

I copy a dictionary into another and edit the second and both are changed. Why is this hap

Answer 1

dict1 is a symbol that references an underlying dictionary object. Assigning dict1 to dict2 merely assigns the same reference. Changing a key's value via the dict2 symbol changes the underlying object, which also affects dict1. This is confusing.

It is far easier to reason about immutable values than references, so make copies whenever possible:

person = {'name': 'Mary', 'age': 25}
one_year_later = {**person, 'age': 26}  # does not mutate person dict

This is syntactically the same as:

one_year_later = dict(person, age=26)

Answer 2

In addition to the other provided solutions, you can use ** to integrate the dictionary into an empty dictionary, e.g.,

shallow_copy_of_other_dict = {**other_dict}.

Now you will have a "shallow" copy of other_dict.

Applied to your example:

>>> dict1 = {"key1": "value1", "key2": "value2"}
>>> dict2 = {**dict1}
>>> dict2
{'key1': 'value1', 'key2': 'value2'}
>>> dict2["key2"] = "WHY?!"
>>> dict1
{'key1': 'value1', 'key2': 'value2'}
>>>

Pointer: Difference between shallow and deep copys

Answer 3

>>> dict2 = dict1
# dict2 is bind to the same Dict object which binds to dict1, so if you modify dict2, you will modify the dict1

There are many ways to copy Dict object, I simply use

dict_1 = {
           'a':1,
           'b':2
         }
dict_2 = {}
dict_2.update(dict_1)

Answer 4

When you assign dict2 = dict1, you are not making a copy of dict1, it results in dict2 being just another name for dict1.

To copy the mutable types like dictionaries, use copy / deepcopy of the copy module.

import copy

dict2 = copy.deepcopy(dict1)

Answer 5

On python 3.5+ there is an easier way to achieve a shallow copy by using the ** unpackaging operator. Defined by Pep 448.

>>>dict1 = {"key1": "value1", "key2": "value2"}
>>>dict2 = {**dict1}
>>>print(dict2)
{'key1': 'value1', 'key2': 'value2'}
>>>dict2["key2"] = "WHY?!"
>>>print(dict1)
{'key1': 'value1', 'key2': 'value2'}
>>>print(dict2)
{'key1': 'value1', 'key2': 'WHY?!'}

** unpackages the dictionary into a new dictionary that is then assigned to dict2.

We can also confirm that each dictionary has a distinct id.

>>>id(dict1)
 178192816

>>>id(dict2)
 178192600

If a deep copy is needed then copy.deepcopy() is still the way to go.

Answer 6

dict2 = dict1 does not copy the dictionary. It simply gives you the programmer a second way (dict2) to refer to the same dictionary.