The predicate gensym/2 is a traditional predicate to generate unique symbols. It should be used with care.

 gensym(+Base, -Unique)

Generate <Base>1, <Base>2, etc atoms on each subsequent call. Note that there is nothing that prevents other parts of the application to `invent' the same identifier. The predicate gensym/2 is thread-safe in the sense that two threads generating identifiers from the same Base will never generate the same identifier.

See also

- uuid/1, term_hash/2, variant_sha1/2 may be used to generate various unique or content-based identifiers safely.

 reset_gensym

Reset all gensym counters. Please beware this is dangerous: gensym may be in use by other modules that do not expect their counter to be reset!

 reset_gensym(+Base)

Reset a specific gensym counter. Please beware this still is dangerous as other code may use gensym with the same atom!