How do I copy an object in Python?

Try copy.copy or copy.deepcopy for the general case. Not all objects can be copied, but most can.
 
import copy
 
newobj = copy.copy(oldobj) # shallow copy
newobj = copy.deepcopy(oldobj) # deep (recursive) copy
Some objects can be copied more easily. Dictionaries have a copy method:
 
newdict = olddict.copy()
Sequences can be copied by slicing:
 
new_list = L[:]
You can also use the list, tuple, dict, and set functions to copy the corresponding objects, and to convert between different sequence types:
 
new_list = list(L) # copy
new_dict = dict(olddict) # copy
 
new_set = set(L) # convert list to set
new_tuple = tuple(L) # convert list to tuple