LauraBeatris
I have been studying how to save files to the filesystem and I had some doubts related to the Erlang functions responsible to deal with binaries.
For instance:
def saveFile(path, file) do
binary = :erlang.term_to_binary(file)
end
def loadFile(path) do
{status, binary} = File.read(path)
case status do
:ok -> :erlang.binary_to_term(binary)
:error -> "File not exists. Did you write the correct path?"
end
What is the “term” word used in the erlang functions above?
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hauleth
Term is any Erlang term. In other words, any value in Erlang is a term.
LauraBeatris
So any value can be converted to a binary?
hauleth
Yes, but beware that it will use External Term Format, not “human readable format”.
EDIT: Not only it can be encoded into binary, it have to. Otherwise the Distributed Erlang couldn’t exist at all.
LauraBeatris
Alrighttt, now i understand it. Thanks!!
ityonemo
yes, and they’re not kidding when they mean “any term”. For example, do this:
then save the term in f to a file. Close your elixir session, start a new one, open the file into a variable f in your new session and then do this: