How can I remove all objects but one from the workspace in R?

Question

I have a workspace with lots of objects and I would like to remove all but one. Ideally I would like to avoid having to type rm(obj.1, obj.2... obj.n). Is it possible to indicate remove all objects but these ones?

Andrie · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-31 16:01:17Z

522

Answer recommended by R Language Collective

Here is a simple construct that will do it, by using setdiff:

rm(list=setdiff(ls(), "x"))

And a full example. Run this at your own risk - it will remove all variables except x:

x <- 1
y <- 2
z <- 3
ls()
[1] "x" "y" "z"

rm(list=setdiff(ls(), "x"))

ls()
[1] "x"

answered May 31, 2011 at 16:01

Andrie

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2 Comments

Spacedman Over a year ago

The technique being used here is to use list= to rm, which allows a character vector to be passed to rm instead of a list of names.

boczniak767 Over a year ago

So if one wants to keep several files it would be rm(list=setdiff(ls(), c("x", "x2")))

Sadegh · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-16 02:35:24Z

76

I think another option is to open workspace in RStudio and then change list to grid at the top right of the environment(image below). Then tick the objects you want to clear and finally click on clear.

enter image description here

edited Jun 16, 2014 at 2:35

answered Jun 14, 2014 at 10:18

Sadegh

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Stephen Over a year ago

Likewise, click the Name box, which selects all the files, and then deselect all the files you want to keep.

Rahul Premraj · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-26 13:04:09Z

75

Using the keep function from the gdata package is quite convenient.

> ls()
[1] "a" "b" "c"

library(gdata)
> keep(a) #shows you which variables will be removed
[1] "b" "c"
> keep(a, sure = TRUE) # setting sure to TRUE removes variables b and c
> ls()
[1] "a"

answered Aug 26, 2011 at 13:04

Rahul Premraj

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2 Comments

Darius Over a year ago

I find that using "keep" from gdata seems to make more sense and it's easier to remember that all the complexity of the comand in base R.

luchonacho Over a year ago

Can we add this please as base r function?

David Arenburg · Accepted Answer · 2014-04-15 22:27:51Z

59

I just spent several hours hunting for the answer to a similar but slightly different question - I needed to be able to delete all objects in R (including functions) except a handful of vectors.

One way to do this:

rm(list=ls()[! ls() %in% c("a","c")])

Where the vectors that I want to keep are named 'a' and 'c'.

Hope this helps anyone searching for the same solution!

edited Apr 15, 2014 at 22:27

David Arenburg

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answered Apr 15, 2014 at 21:55

Talon

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1 Comment

hplieninger Over a year ago

This should also work, rm(list=setdiff(ls(), c("a", "c"))), right? See @Andrie's answer.

Aaron - mostly inactive · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-31 16:03:46Z

22

To keep all objects whose names match a pattern, you could use grep, like so:

to.remove <- ls()
to.remove <- c(to.remove[!grepl("^obj", to.remove)], "to.remove")
rm(list=to.remove)

answered May 31, 2011 at 16:03

Aaron - mostly inactive

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2 Comments

Luis Over a year ago

Amazing! Do you know any way to make this answer a one-line code instead of three?

user2332849 Over a year ago

@Luis rm(list=grep("^obj", ls(), value=T, invert=T))

Ben · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-05 12:15:54Z

21

Replace v with the name of the object you want to keep

rm(list=(ls()[ls()!="v"]))

hat-tip: http://r.789695.n4.nabble.com/Removing-objects-and-clearing-memory-tp3445763p3445865.html

answered Apr 5, 2013 at 12:15

Ben

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Comments

Peter · Accepted Answer · 2021-04-06 20:32:15Z

19

To keep a list of objects, one can use:

rm(list=setdiff(ls(), c("df1", "df2")))

edited Apr 6, 2021 at 20:32

answered Dec 9, 2019 at 12:04

Peter

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Peter Diakumis · Accepted Answer · 2014-12-11 13:33:09Z

6

This takes advantage of ls()'s pattern option, in the case you have a lot of objects with the same pattern that you don't want to keep:

> foo1 <- "junk"; foo2 <- "rubbish"; foo3 <- "trash"; x <- "gold"  
> ls()
[1] "foo1" "foo2" "foo3" "x"   
> # Let's check first what we want to remove
> ls(pattern = "foo")
[1] "foo1" "foo2" "foo3"
> rm(list = ls(pattern = "foo"))
> ls()
[1] "x"

edited Dec 11, 2014 at 13:33

answered Dec 11, 2014 at 4:01

Peter Diakumis

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2 Comments

DQdlM Over a year ago

whoah, that seems dangerous! Is there a way to test the pattern matching a la "echo" in the shell?

Peter Diakumis Over a year ago

I guess the rm function should always be used with care (more so in the shell!). See my edit for an answer to your question.

Holly · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-26 22:32:48Z

4

require(gdata)
keep(object_1,...,object_n,sure=TRUE)
ls()

answered Oct 26, 2015 at 22:32

Holly

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1 Comment

hplieninger Over a year ago

Duplicate of @Rahul Premraj's answer.

Griffith Feeney · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-05 19:17:04Z

3

From within a function, rm all objects in .GlobalEnv except the function

initialize <- function(country.name) {

  if (length(setdiff(ls(pos = .GlobalEnv), "initialize")) > 0) {
    rm(list=setdiff(ls(pos = .GlobalEnv), "initialize"), pos = .GlobalEnv)
  }

}

answered Feb 5, 2014 at 19:17

Griffith Feeney

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Comments

Grec001 · Accepted Answer · 2017-02-15 07:04:08Z

3

let's think in different way, what if we wanna remove a group? try this,

 rm(list=ls()[grep("xxx",ls())])

I personally don't like too many tables, variables on my screen, yet I can't avoid using them. So I name the temporary things starting with "xxx", so I can remove them after it is no longer used.

answered Feb 15, 2017 at 7:04

Grec001

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MCH · Accepted Answer · 2016-03-08 13:20:18Z

2

assuming you want to remove every object except df from environment:

rm(list = ls(pattern="[^df]"))

answered Mar 8, 2016 at 13:20

MCH

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1 Comment

thelatemail Over a year ago

This is not correct. [^df] is the negation of a set of characters d and f. This will also remove fdd and fd and ddd for instance, and keep any object that has at least one instance of a character that is not d or f.

f0nzie · Accepted Answer · 2019-02-08 01:56:50Z

2

# remove all objects but selected
rm(list = ls()[which("key_function" != ls())])

answered Feb 8, 2019 at 1:56

f0nzie

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think · Accepted Answer · 2015-06-23 21:30:36Z

1

How about this?

# Removes all objects except the specified & the function itself.

rme <- function(except=NULL){
  except = ifelse(is.character(except), except, deparse(substitute(except)))
  rm(list=setdiff(ls(envir=.GlobalEnv), c(except,"rme")), envir=.GlobalEnv)
}

answered Jun 23, 2015 at 21:30

think

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