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BIFs are functions that are built into Erlang. They usually do tasks that are impossible to program in Erlang. For example, it’s impossible to turn a list into a tuple or to find the current time and date. To perform such an operation, we call a BIF.
Let’s take an example of how BIF’s are used −
Example
-module(helloworld).
-export([start/0]).
start() ->
io:fwrite("~p~n",[tuple_to_list({1,2,3})]),
io:fwrite("~p~n",[time()]).
The following things need to be noted about the above example −
-
In the first example, we are using the BIF called tuple_to_list to convert a tuple to a list.
-
In the second BIF function, we are using the time function to output the system time.
The output of the above program will be as follows −
Output
[1,2,3]
{10,54,56}
Let’s look at some of the more BIF functions available in Erlang.
| Sr.No. | BIF Functions & Description |
|---|---|
| 1 |
This method returns the current system date. |
| 2 |
This method returns the number of bytes contained in a Bitstring. |
| 3 |
The method returns the Nth element in the tuple. |
| 4 |
This method returns the float value of a particular number. |
| 5 |
The method returns the process dictionary as a list. |
| 6 |
This method is used to put a key,value pair in the process dictionary. |
| 7 |
The method is used to give the local date and time in the system. |
| 8 |
Returns a list containing information about memory dynamically allocated by the Erlang emulator. |
| 9 |
This method returns the tuple {MegaSecs, Secs, MicroSecs} which is the elapsed time since 00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970. |
| 10 |
Returns a list of all ports on the local node |
| 11 |
Returns a list of process identifiers corresponding to all the processes currently existing on the local node. |
| 12 |
Returns the current date and time according to Universal Time Coordinated (UTC). |
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