How to remove selected R variables without having to type their names

Question

While testing a simulation in R using randomly generated input data, I have found and fixed a few bugs and would now like to re-run the simulation with the same data, bu

Answer 1

I had a similar requirement. I pulled all the elements I needed to a list:

varsToPurge = as.list(ls())

I then reassign the few values I wish to keep with new variable names which will not be in the variable varsToPurge. After that I looped through the elements

for (j in 1:length(varsToPurge)){
  rm(list = as.character(varsToPurge[j]))
}

Do a little garbage collecting, and you maintain a clean environment as you go through your code.

gc()

You can also use a vector of row numbers you wish to keep instead and run through the vector in the loop but it won't be as dynamic if you add rough work you wish to remove.