diff --git a/Doc/library/copy.rst b/Doc/library/copy.rst index 121c44a16ad43b..39fc7800d03a91 100644 --- a/Doc/library/copy.rst +++ b/Doc/library/copy.rst @@ -72,9 +72,13 @@ file, socket, window, or any similar types. It does "copy" functions and classes (shallow and deeply), by returning the original object unchanged; this is compatible with the way these are treated by the :mod:`pickle` module. -Shallow copies of dictionaries can be made using :meth:`dict.copy`, and -of lists by assigning a slice of the entire list, for example, -``copied_list = original_list[:]``. +Shallow copies of many collections can be made using the corresponding +:meth:`!copy` method (such as :meth:`list.copy`, :meth:`dict.copy` or +:meth:`set.copy`), and of sequences (such as lists or bytearrays) by making +a slice of the entire sequence (``sequence[:]``). +However, these methods and slicing can create an instance of the base type +when copying an instance of a subclass, whereas :func:`copy.copy` normally +returns an instance of the same type. .. index:: pair: module; pickle