delete

Delete files or objects

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Syntax

delete filename
delete filename1 ... filenameN
delete(obj)

Description

example

delete filename deletes filename from disk, without requesting verification. To change whether the specified file is permanently deleted or sent to the recycle bin, change the Deleting files preference. To do so, go to the Home tab and in the Environment section, click Preferences. Select MATLAB > General. Then, choose from one of the two options in the Deleting files section. By default, the Delete permanently option is selected.

Note

On Mac platforms, the Deleting files preference is not applied to files deleted from network drives. All files are deleted permanently.

delete filename1 ... filenameN deletes the specified files from disk.

example

delete(obj) deletes the specified object. If obj is an array, then delete deletes all objects in the array. obj remains in the workspace, but is no longer valid.

Examples

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Open Live Script

Delete all files in the current folder with a .mat extension.

delete *.mat
Open Live Script

Delete a graphics object and a graphics object array.

Create a bar chart and plot five lines. Then delete the bar chart. 

b = bar(1:5);
hold on
P = plot(magic(5));
delete(b)

The Bar object variable b remains in the workspace, but no longer refers to an object. 

display(b)
b = 
  handle to deleted Bar

Delete all the Line objects created by plot.

delete(P)

Input Arguments

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File name to delete, specified as a character vector or string scalar. filename can be an absolute or relative path and can include wildcards (*). To delete files from a remote location, fileName must contain a full path specified as a uniform resource locator (URL). For more information, see Work with Remote Data.

Object to delete, specified as a single object or an array of objects.

Compatibility Considerations

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Behavior changed in R2020a

See Also

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Topics

Introduced before R2006a

MATLAB Documentation

Support