Is it possible to detect any changes made to a Python instance without the need to create a duplicate?

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It depends on the specific changes you are referring to.

If you are talking about changes to the attributes or properties of an object, you can use the __setattr__ method to detect and log any changes made to the instance.

For example, consider the following class:

class Person:
    def __init__(self, name, age):
        self.name = name
        self.age = age

    def __setattr__(self, name, value):
        print(f'{name} was changed to {value}')
        super().__setattr__(name, value)

In this class, we have overridden the __setattr__ method to log any changes made to the object. Now, whenever we create an instance of this class and modify its attributes, we will see the changes being logged:

p = Person('Alice', 25)
p.name = 'Bob'
# Output: name was changed to Bob

p.age += 1
# Output: age was changed to 26

However, if you are talking about changes to the structure or behavior of the instance (such as adding or removing methods), then it is not possible to detect these changes without creating a duplicate of the instance.