Why can't I duplicate a slice with `copy()`?
I need to make a copy of a slice in Go and reading the docs there is a copy function at my disposal.
The copy built-in function copies elements from a source slice into a destination slice. (As a special case, it also will copy bytes from a string to a slice of bytes.) The source and destination may overlap. Copy returns the number of elements copied, which will be the minimum of len(src) and len(dst).
But when I do:
arr := []int{1, 2, 3}
tmp := []int{}
copy(tmp, arr)
fmt.Println(tmp)
fmt.Println(arr)
My tmp is empty as it was before (I even tried to use arr, tmp):
[]
[1 2 3]
You can check it on go playground. So why can not I copy a slice?
Solution 1:
The builtin copy(dst, src) copies min(len(dst), len(src)) elements.
So if your dst is empty (len(dst) == 0), nothing will be copied.
Try tmp := make([]int, len(arr)) (Go Playground):
arr := []int{1, 2, 3}
tmp := make([]int, len(arr))
copy(tmp, arr)
fmt.Println(tmp)
fmt.Println(arr)
Output (as expected):
[1 2 3]
[1 2 3]
Unfortunately this is not documented in the builtin package, but it is documented in the Go Language Specification: Appending to and copying slices:
The number of elements copied is the minimum of
len(src)andlen(dst).
Edit:
Finally the documentation of copy() has been updated and it now contains the fact that the minimum length of source and destination will be copied:
Copy returns the number of elements copied, which will be the minimum of len(src) and len(dst).
Solution 2:
Another simple way to do this is by using append which will allocate the slice in the process.
arr := []int{1, 2, 3}
tmp := append([]int(nil), arr...) // Notice the ... splat
fmt.Println(tmp)
fmt.Println(arr)
Output (as expected):
[1 2 3]
[1 2 3]
As pointed out in the comments below, append may allocate excess memory if the slice isn't sized correctly to begin with. A nice solution to this is to preallocate a slice of the right capacity, like so:
tmp := append(make([]int, 0, len(arr)), arr...)
So a shorthand for copying array arr would be append(make([]int, 0, len(arr)), arr...)
https://play.golang.org/p/xwevI1chGrd
Solution 3:
If your slices were of the same size, it would work:
arr := []int{1, 2, 3}
tmp := []int{0, 0, 0}
i := copy(tmp, arr)
fmt.Println(i)
fmt.Println(tmp)
fmt.Println(arr)
Would give:
3
[1 2 3]
[1 2 3]
From "Go Slices: usage and internals":
The copy function supports copying between slices of different lengths (it will copy only up to the smaller number of elements)
The usual example is:
t := make([]byte, len(s), (cap(s)+1)*2)
copy(t, s)
s = t
Solution 4:
The copy() runs for the least length of dst and src, so you must initialize the dst to the desired length.
A := []int{1, 2, 3}
B := make([]int, 3)
copy(B, A)
C := make([]int, 2)
copy(C, A)
fmt.Println(A, B, C)
Output:
[1 2 3] [1 2 3] [1 2]
You can initialize and copy all elements in one line using append() to a nil slice.
x := append([]T{}, []...)
Example:
A := []int{1, 2, 3}
B := append([]int{}, A...)
C := append([]int{}, A[:2]...)
fmt.Println(A, B, C)
Output:
[1 2 3] [1 2 3] [1 2]
Comparing with allocation+copy(), for greater than 1,000 elements, use append. Actually bellow 1,000 the difference may be neglected, make it a go for rule of thumb unless you have many slices.
BenchmarkCopy1-4 50000000 27.0 ns/op
BenchmarkCopy10-4 30000000 53.3 ns/op
BenchmarkCopy100-4 10000000 229 ns/op
BenchmarkCopy1000-4 1000000 1942 ns/op
BenchmarkCopy10000-4 100000 18009 ns/op
BenchmarkCopy100000-4 10000 220113 ns/op
BenchmarkCopy1000000-4 1000 2028157 ns/op
BenchmarkCopy10000000-4 100 15323924 ns/op
BenchmarkCopy100000000-4 1 1200488116 ns/op
BenchmarkAppend1-4 50000000 34.2 ns/op
BenchmarkAppend10-4 20000000 60.0 ns/op
BenchmarkAppend100-4 5000000 240 ns/op
BenchmarkAppend1000-4 1000000 1832 ns/op
BenchmarkAppend10000-4 100000 13378 ns/op
BenchmarkAppend100000-4 10000 142397 ns/op
BenchmarkAppend1000000-4 2000 1053891 ns/op
BenchmarkAppend10000000-4 200 9500541 ns/op
BenchmarkAppend100000000-4 20 176361861 ns/op
Solution 5:
The best way to clone as slice is
sClone = append(s[:0:0], s...)
This implementation has two advantage:
-
make sure that the result sClone is nil if s is nil, and is not nil if s is not nil.
-
No need to import the containing package of type T even if T is declared in another package