Considering a 'clean_env' function to clear the global environment of…

… all objects except user-specified objects

dev/clean_env.R

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+
+
+
+# Testing 'clean_env' function
+
+
+# Make some objects
+x <- list()
+y <- "Aaa"
+z <- 123
+
+# Define function
+clean_env <- function(except, collect_garbage = TRUE){
+
+  # Error for supplied 'except' that is not a character vector
+  if(length(except) != 0){
+    if(is.character(except) != TRUE)
+      stop("'except' values must be provided as a character vector")
+  }
+
+  # Warning for malformed garbage collect entry
+  if(is.logical(collect_garbage) != TRUE){
+    warning("'collect_garbage' must be logical. Defaulting to FALSE")
+    collect_garbage <- FALSE }
+
+  # Identify objects to remove (all of them if no exceptions are specified)
+  if(length(except) != 0){ 
+
+    # Identify non-exception objects
+    trash <- generics::setdiff(x = ls(), y = except)
+
+    # Otherwise flag all object names for removal
+  } else { trash <- ls() }
+
+  # Clear environment (except for the other argument of the function)
+  rm(list = generics::setdiff(x = trash, y = "collect_garbage"))
+
+  # If indicated, collect garbage
+  if(collect_garbage == TRUE){ gc(verbose = FALSE) }
+}
+
+clean_env(except = c("clean_env", "x"), collect_garbage = T)
+