Deep Copy

How Do You Clone a Linked List with a Random Pointer?

You clone a linked list where each node has both a next pointer and a random pointer (which may point anywhere in the list or to null) by first mapping every o…

What is a Copy Constructor?

A copy constructor is a special constructor that creates a new object as a duplicate of an existing object of the same class, copying its field values into the…

What is the Prototype Pattern?

The Prototype pattern is a creational design pattern that creates new objects by cloning an existing, fully configured instance rather than constructing one fr…

What is a Deep Copy?

A deep copy creates a completely independent duplicate of an object, recursively copying every nested object it references as well, so the original and the cop…

Shallow Copy vs Deep Copy

A shallow copy duplicates an object’s top-level fields but keeps any reference-type fields pointing to the same underlying objects as the original, while a dee…

What is Object Cloning?

Object cloning is the general technique of creating a new object that has the same state as an existing object, so the copy can be used or modified independent…

What is a Copy Assignment Operator?

A copy assignment operator is the special member function (in C++, operator=(const T&)) that defines how an already-existing object’s state is overwritten with…

Move Semantics vs Copy Semantics

Copy semantics duplicates an object’s resources so the source and destination each own independent data, while move semantics transfers ownership of a source o…

What is the Rule of Three in C++?

The Rule of Three states that if a C++ class defines any one of a custom destructor, copy constructor, or copy assignment operator, it almost certainly needs t…

Shallow Copy vs Deep Copy: What Is the Difference?

A shallow copy duplicates only the top-level properties of an object or array, so nested objects are still shared by reference with the original, while a deep…