Erlang Tutorial

BIFs (Built-In Functions) in Erlang

BIFs are built-in functions in Erlang. They usually perform tasks that cannot be programmed in Erlang. For example, it is impossible to convert a list to a tuple, and it is also impossible to find the current date and time. To perform such operations, we call them BIFs.

Let's take an example of how to use BIFs-

Online Example

Example

-module(helloworld).　
-export([start/0]).　
start()　->　　　
　　　io:fwrite("~p~n",[tuple_to_list({1,2,3})]),　
　　　io:fwrite("~p~n",[time()]).

For the above examples, the following points should be noted:

In the first example, we use the BIF named tuple_to_list to convert a tuple to a list.
In the second BIF function, we usetime functionTo output the system time.

The output of the above program is as follows:

[1,2,3]
{10,54,56}

Let's take a look at more available BIF functions in Erlang.

Serial Number	BIF Functions and Descriptions
1	date This method returns the current system date.
2	byte_size This method returns the number of bytes contained in a bit string.
3	element This method returns the Nth element of the tuple.
4	float This method returns the floating-point value of a specific number.
5	get This method returns the process dictionary as a list.
6	put This method is used forkey,valuePlace a key-value pair in the process dictionary.
7	localtime This method is used to provide the local date and time in the system.
8	memory Returns a list containing information about the memory dynamically allocated by the Erlang simulator.
9	now This method returns the tuple {MegaSecs, Secs, MicroSecs}, which is the time1970 years1Month1Time elapsed since 00:00:00 GMT.
10	ports Returns a list of all ports on the local node
11	processes Returns a list of process identifiers corresponding to all processes currently existing on the local node.
12	universaltime Returns the current date and time based on Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

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