How does the process of duplicating array elements differ from copying data structures?

Duplicating array elements usually means creating a new array with copies of the original array's elements. It is important to understand that references to objects are copied (if the array contains objects), not the objects themselves — this is shallow copying.

Copying data structures can be:

• Shallow copy: only the top levels of the structure are copied, nested objects remain shared.
• Deep copy: a fully independent copy of the entire structure is created, including nested objects.

For example, when duplicating an array of objects in Swift:

let originalArray = [MyStruct(...), MyStruct(...)]
let copiedArray = originalArray // copying the array, but elements are structures, copied by value

If the elements are structures (value types), copying the array will create independent copies of the elements. If the elements are classes (reference types), references are copied, not the objects themselves.

Thus, duplicating an array is an operation at the container level, and copying data structures is a more profound process, depending on the data type and the required level of independence of the copies.