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erlangerlang-shell

How do you unbind variables in an interactive Erlang session?


In the Erlang interactive shell you can bind variables to values. If I would like to clear everything and start from scratch without exiting the session and starting a new one, how do I do that?

And if I just wanted to re-use a single variable, is it possible to re-bind?


Solution

  • Use the built-in functions f() and f(Var):

    1> A = 1, B = 2.
    2
    2> f(A).
    ok
    3> A.
    * 1: variable 'A' is unbound
    4> B.
    2
    5> f().
    ok
    6> B.
    * 1: variable 'B' is unbound
    7>
    

    Shell commands are actually functions in the 'c' module: http://www.erlang.org/doc/man/c.html