[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
forgive me , but the RTFM and Google search approaches are not
yielding an answer on this question. I need to know if there's a top
level python interpreter command that clears all user variables (not
built-ins) from the global namespace. In other words a statement, or
some_command_or_function(), that does this:
x=3
y=4
z=[]
dir()
['__builtins__', '__doc__', '__name__', 'x', 'y', 'z']
some_command_or_function()
dir()
['__builtins__', '__doc__', '__name__']
First, a WARNING to other readers deceived by the subject line.
Globals().clear() clears everything and leaves nothing, so Capn... is
looking for something that works that is a shortcut for deleting
bindings one-by-one.
To your question. The short answer is no.
In batch mode, only create what you need and delete (unbind) large
objects that are not automatically deleted (unbound) when you are done
with them. Remember that only reference-counted implementations will
guarantee immediate destruction and space-freeing when the last
reference goes away. Check the gc module (and some posts in the
archives) for more specialized control.
In interactive mode, restart the interpreter if you really need a clean
slate and have too many bindings that you must delete to do something
quick like 'del x,y,z' as in your example above. In IDLE, cntl-F6
restarts the shell with a clean slate. I presume IPython has something
similar.
tjr
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