# How to list all user-defined symbols?

I create a lot of symbols, and then I move on to my next set of manipulations. I noticed that symbols from prior sessions are still around. I have no idea how many symbols are in my context, but there must be a lot of them. How can I see what symbols I have lying around?

I see that

Names["*"]


will give me a list of all symbols, but that includes the upper-case system symbols, which I don't want to see.

• Jul 21 '18 at 20:37
• Also related: (175573), and perhaps (1474) Jul 22 '18 at 6:04

User defined symbols/functions are in the Global context:

a = 1;
b[x_] := a x^2;
c[x_] := f[x];

Names["Global*"]


{"a", "b", "c", "f", "x"}

• I would argue that, in fact, neither f nor x are user-defined symbols in your example. I would only consider a, b, c to be. Given the accept, I guess OP would disagree with me though. Jul 22 '18 at 1:36
• @AccidentalFourierTransform The other problem I see is that not all user-defined symbols are in the Global context. This probably suffices for many purposes but it's not really robust. Jul 22 '18 at 6:07