Deepcopy a simple Python object

Question

I have an object which defines a __deepcopy__ method. I would like a function that will deepcopy it not by the method given by it, but in the default way that objects of the class object are copied.

How could I do that? I think I could try to code it but there are probably many "gotchas" I won't be thinking of.

The reason I'm doing it is because I have an object class which implements a __deepcopy__ method, and that method checks for some condition, and in some cases it will deepcopy the object in a certain way, and in other cases it will deepcopy in the default object way.

Answer 1

You basically need to override the existing __deepcopy__ method, which means temporarily setting the object's class to something different -- whether that's acceptable essentially depends on whether the "__deepcopy__ override" needs to affect only one, "top-level" object (in which case the kludge's probably OK), or if there are many objects of that class in the graph you're copying, in which case it's quite a mess. Which case obtains?

• Ram Rachum: I think there would be multiple objects of that class in the tree, sorry. Also, I am scared by the thought of changing the object's class!