Is there a reason form matching fn calls with _?

Questions / Help
1

I have seen something like this: _ = do_some_stuff() which basically
calls a function but doesn’t really need/use the return value.
This, i think, was spotted inside Phoenix and i never actually did
like or understand it.
I don’t understand the point of the matching, when there’s really no need
of the return value. I i just simply call the function…

2

If you’re using dialyzer and have it warn on unmatched returns, that idiom is the way to silence the warning. You are acknowledging that you know there is a return value and you are explicitly ignoring it.

2 Likes
3

A, ok, didn’t thought about dialyzer - thanks!