Why does changing an Array in JavaScript affect copies of the array?

Question

I\'ve written the following JavaScript:

var myArray = [\'a\', \'b\', \'c\'];
var copyOfMyArray = myArray;
copyOfMyArray.splice(0, 1);
alert(myArray); // aler         


        

Answer 1

Well, the only possible answer — and the correct one — is that you're not actually copying the array. When you write

var copyOfArray = array;

you're assigning a reference to the same array into another variable. They're both pointing at the same object, in other words.