A deep copy of an object is a copy whose properties do not share the same references (point to the same underlying values) as those of the source object from which the copy was made. As a result, when you change either the source or the copy, you can be assured you're not causing the other object to change too. That behavior contrasts with the behavior of a shallow copy, in which changes to nested properties in the source or the copy may cause the other object to change too....elements in the HTML DOM API , recursive data, and many other cases...