Removing a variable ending with string pattern

Question

To remove a variable / object in Python I always use:

del variable
del [variable1, variable2] # removing multiple variables

How can I extend this, so I can delete all variables / objects ending with a certain pattern?

The reason I'm asking is that I'd like to remove all my temporary objects. I always name these such that they end with _tmp.

"I'd like to remove all my temporary objects" - but why? Python's garbage collector does this for you. — meowgoesthedog
– meowgoesthedog, Commented Jul 17, 2019 at 10:48
Possible duplicate of Is there a way to delete created variables, functions, etc from the memory of the interpreter? — Thierry Lathuille
– Thierry Lathuille, Commented Jul 17, 2019 at 10:48
@meowgoesthedog I basically want to do this so the overview in Python's Variable Explorer remains clean. For example, I might create a new dataframe and to do that I first create 5 temporary objects / variables that are then shown in my Variable Explorer. Those 5 objects I would give a name ending with _tmp so that I'd like to delete all those again. Does that make sense? — Anonymous
– Anonymous, Commented Jul 17, 2019 at 10:52
If they're hanging around making debugging difficult, it suggests you have a much wider scope than you need. For instance make the dataframe in a function, then the variables will be automatically removed from the variable explorer as soon as the function returns. — Holloway
– Holloway, Commented Jul 17, 2019 at 10:57
@Ghassen wasn't me. Although your suggestion doesn't work anyways. — Anonymous
– Anonymous, Commented Jul 17, 2019 at 11:15

ptolemy0 · Accepted Answer · 2019-07-17 10:53:39Z

3

As an alternative method, but which would solve your problem. you could make use of a dictionary. So if you keep all your temporary objects in a dictionary, you would need to only delete that.

temp_dict = {'variable1_tmp': 1234, 'variable2_tmp': 'hello'}
# remove only one temp
del temp_dict['variable1_tmp']
# remove all temp
del temp_dict

Although that is not dynamically deleting variables, as you asked. Hopefully that might suit your use case anyway.

answered Jul 17, 2019 at 10:53

ptolemy0

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1 Comment

Anonymous Over a year ago

Great suggestion, will adopt this in my 'best practice'. It seems to make sense.

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