How do I clear a buffer completely with elisp?

Question

If I want to delete everything in a buffer with elisp, how do I do that?

score 31 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 19 '15 at 20:33

31

Have you tried erase-buffer?

erase-buffer is an interactive built-in function in `C source code'.

(erase-buffer)


Delete the entire contents of the current buffer.
Any narrowing restriction in effect (see `narrow-to-region') is removed,
so the buffer is truly empty after this.

How to find such a function? M-x apropos buffer erase

answered Oct 19 '15 at 20:33

Drew

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There are a few exceptions, e.g., overlay objects are not deleted, and there may be some other stuff I am not familiar with that continues to be present after `erase-buffer` is called. – lawlist Oct 19 '15 at 21:13
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Yes, the question is not very precise wrt "*everything*" and "*in*" the buffer. If you want to get rid of everything associated with the buffer, then `kill-buffer` is your friend. – Drew Oct 19 '15 at 21:54

score 9 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 19 '15 at 21:21

9

You can use some setf magic.

(setf (buffer-string) "")

answered Oct 19 '15 at 21:21

Jordon Biondo

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score -1 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 18 '17 at 21:48

-1

There's also this answer:

C-x h + del key clears the buffer

Note: This requires transient-mark-mode to be enabled (which it is by default).

answered Jul 18 '17 at 21:48

Joshua Goldberg

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But this is a key sequence, whereas the OP asked for an Elisp answer. – Stefan Jul 19 '17 at 03:08
Oops, posted too quickly. – Joshua Goldberg Jul 19 '17 at 13:46

How do I clear a buffer completely with elisp?

3 Answers3