R: Remove Objects from a Specified Environment

remove {base} | R Documentation

## Remove Objects from a Specified Environment

### Description

`remove` and `rm` can be used to remove objects. These can be specified successively as character strings, or in the character vector `list`, or through a combination of both. All objects thus specified will be removed.

If `envir` is NULL then the the currently active environment is searched first.

If `inherits` is `TRUE` then parents of the supplied directory are searched until a variable with the given name is encountered. A warning is printed for each variable that is not found.

### Usage

    remove(..., list = character(0), pos = -1, envir = as.environment(pos),
           inherits = FALSE)
    rm    (..., list = character(0), pos = -1, envir = as.environment(pos),
           inherits = FALSE)

### Arguments

`...` | the objects to be removed, supplied individually and/or as a character vector
`list` | a character vector naming objects to be removed.
`pos` | where to do the removal. By default, uses the current environment. See the details for other possibilities.
`envir` | the `environment` to use. See the details section.
`inherits` | should the enclosing frames of the environment be inspected?

### Details

The `pos` argument can specify the environment from which to remove the objects in any of several ways: as an integer (the position in the `search` list); as the character string name of an element in the search list; or as an `environment` (including using `sys.frame` to access the currently active function calls). The `envir` argument is an alternative way to specify an environment, but is primarily there for back compatibility.

### See Also

`ls`, `objects`

### Examples

    tmp <- 1:4
    ## work with tmp  and cleanup
    rm(tmp)

    ## remove (almost) everything in the working environment.
    ## You will get no warning, so don't do this unless you are really sure.
    rm(list = ls())

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