title: Purpose of pandas DataFrame.copy(deep=False)?
body: <p>What is the purpose of pandas'</p>
  
  <pre><code>&gt;&gt;&gt; df2 = df.copy(deep=False)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>? (<code>df</code> is a pandas DataFrame.)</p>
  
  <hr>
  
  <p>Isn't that the <strong>exact</strong> same thing as</p>
  
  <pre><code>&gt;&gt;&gt; df2 = df
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>?</p>
  
  <p>If there is a difference, please explain.  If there is no difference, why bother allowing for the <code>deep</code> flag?  Why not remove the flag parameter, since we're all comfortable knowing the 'shallow copy via assignment' from the rest of Python?  Or maybe call the method <code>deepcopy</code> instead of <code>copy</code>, to make the fact that it is a deep copy explicit.</p>