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Copy/pasting does not lead to understanding. The understanding I gain from not copy/pasting allows me to pursue more difficult projects where there isn't a ready-made answer online. If you want to grow, you have to do the work yourself.

And if you want others to grow, make sure your answers give knowledge without giving solutions.



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Copy/paste is not an "answer," it is a tool used for document creation. There's nothing wrong with it in the least, as long as sources are documented.

Why is copying and pasting to be discouraged?

If copy pasting is that important to you, I don't think you're a good developer.

Many people do not understand copy and paste at all.

People will only copy and paste. You're just making it inconvenient

Copying and pasting seriously inhibits learning and tends to directly cause mistakes.

This kind of sucks honestly, copy and pasting without understanding has lead to all sorts of issues in IT. Not to mention legal issues as mentioned by another reply.

It's not clear to me how that's better than the traditional solution to generate "Dumb Code", copy-pasting something. And we all know the problems with copy-pasting as a lifestyle.

I haven't encountered copy and paste code.

You made me realize that there are so many different levels of expertise, that what is right for someone's situation might not be right for mine. It might not even make sense to me (if I don't happen to know their specific situation), even though it is right for them.


Did you read the linked article? It doesn't matter what it looks like you're copying/pasting, or how it's explained in the site you're copying/pasting it from.

I agree with don't copy paste. because i hate with copy paste

Isn't it good, though, to prevent people from trying in vain to learn things by copy-paste?

What happens if you copy paste?

Needs copy and paste?

Do people really copy/paste from StackOverflow?

I feel this is more a meme, rather than reality. I do check StackOverflow, but never have I took an answer verbatim. I try to see if it's the same problem and what was the approach in deconstructing it, which I find more useful in the long run.


Alternatively, you might have copied and pasted because it's so short and common that there isn't really another way to do it.

Please don't lazily copy/paste either I guess.

Why don't you want to copy and paste the universe?

> Somehow, she understands CUT and paste, but can't make the mental leap to COPY. She typically cuts, pastes it right back to where she came from, and then goes to paste it again elsewhere.

That's a pro trick, I think. I consider myself a power user and I switched from copy+paste to cut+paste+paste a while ago. It gives me an extra kick of making sure the copy worked as intended.

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