How to clear the environment in r – remove all objects in r

When programming, it sometimes becomes necessary to clear your variables. In r there is a straightforward process for clearing r objects from the r environment. Furthermore, it is possible to delete some or all of your variables. One of the reasons you may need to remove variables is to relieve the clutter.

Description

To clear r objects, you use the rm function. This function comes in the format of rm(list) where list provides the variables to be deleted. When this command is executed, it will delete any object listed. When the objects argument is used the variable names are placed directly between the parentheses. When the list argument is used, it is equated to a vector containing character strings of the variable names. To remove all objects in r simply equate list to the ls function. The ls function produces a vector containing all of the names of the objects in the global environment.

Explanation

The rm function is a simple, but powerful tool. It is a good in-code way of removing r objects from the workspace. The list used in this function must be a vector, it cannot be a data frame or even one of the columns from a data frame. If the vector has missing values in the form of NA, it will produce a warning, but it will still work. Furthermore, the data in the vector being used must be character strings. When set up right the rm function will remove all the listed objects. Using the ls function will remove all the objects in the r environment.

Examples

Here are three examples of the rm function in action. The ls function is used to show what objects are present in the environment.

> a = c(1:5)
> b = c(1:5)
> c = c(1:5)
> d = c(1:5)
> ls()
[1] “a” “b” “c” “d”
> rm(a,d)
> ls()
[1] “b” “c”

This example demonstrates the objects argument. It is the most straightforward way of using this function.

> a = c(1:5)
> b = c(1:5)
> c = c(1:5)
> d = c(1:5)
> ls()
[1] “a” “b” “c” “d”
> rm(list = c(“a”,”c”))
> ls()
[1] “b” “d”

This example demonstrates the list argument. It has the advantage of being able to substitute a variable vector for the constant used here.

> a = c(1:5)
> b = c(1:5)
> c = c(1:5)
> d = c(1:5)
> ls()
[1] “a” “b” “c” “d”
> rm(list = ls())
> ls()
character(0)

This example shows how to remove all objects in r using the ls function.

Application

The main application of the rm function is to free up memory. Removing unused elements is a handy way of preventing a stack overflow error. It is also useful in clearing out objects from loaded packages. It is easy to build up unused and unwanted library objects, and this is a straightforward way of getting rid of them. One other application is simply clearing up the environment of objects you are no longer using for no other reason than making it easier to read.

The rm function is a handy tool that helps you to keep your global environment clean. For small programs, this is not often needed, but for larger ones, it can make the difference between running smoothly and not running at all. It is a handy tool for clearing up your workspace.

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