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====== obj.ClearObject ======

===== Motivation =====
As explained on the [[xff - memory management|memory management]] page, xff stores the actual content of objects in a global variable, which means that the statement

<code matlab>clear obj;</code>

does **not** have the desired effect of clearing (freeing) the memory associated with the variable (object) ''obj''. Instead, the memory must be freed using a class/object method (which in turn removes the object's content from the global variable).

===== Reference ('obj.Help('ClearObject')') =====
<file> AFT::ClearObject  - remove object from global storage
 
 FORMAT:       obj.ClearObject;
 
 No input / output fields.
 
 TYPES: ALL</file>
===== Usage example =====
<code matlab obj_ClearObject_example.m>% creating a temporary SDM
sdm = xff('new:sdm');

% adding filters
sdm.AddFilters(struct('number', 3, 'timepts', 120));

% getting filter regressors
filterregs = sdm.SDMMatrix;

% clearing object to free associated memory!!
sdm.ClearObject;</code>

===== Note =====
While xff does support garbage collection, this does **not** affect objects that
  * have been created in the BASE workspace (which includes objects created in batch M-files, as long as this batch file was called from the BASE workspace, i.e. the console)
  * have been ''bless''ed using the ''bless(obj);'' or ''bless(obj, levels);'' call

Also, the garbage collection is called only when a method on any given xff object is used; so it can sometimes take a while before memory becomes available again. In general, **it is highly suggested that you clear objects once you know they are no longer required** to free up the memory they allocate!