Question

I can define a record on the erl shell via:

129> rd(person, {name=""}).
person
130> #person {}.
#person{name = []}
131> #person {name="dummy"}.
#person{name = "dummy"}

But I’m not sure how to define and use records in a module. When I create my_module.erl:

-module(my_module).

-record(person, {name, phone, address}).

#person {name="dummy"}.

…and try to compile, I get:

132> c(my_module).          
my_module.erl:5: syntax error before: '#'
my_module.erl:3: Warning: record person is unused
error

The documentation says rd is used in the shell since records are available at compile time, not runtime. So I would assume I wouldn’t need to use rd in the module definition.

Answer 1

You have defined it right, but a record can only be used inside a function (when it’s inside a module).

So add something like

test_record() -> #person{name="dummy"}.

Then you can see the results from the Erlang shell with

my_module:test_record()