copy an object in Python

To get a fully independent copy of an object you can use the copy.deepcopy() function. For more details about shallow and deep copying please refer to the other answers to this question and the nice explanation in https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3975376/understanding-dict-copy-shallow-or-deep/3975388#3975388 https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4794244/how-can-i-create-a-copy-of-an-object-in-python https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13538266/python-copy-of-a-variable https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8122627/copied-variable-changes-the-original