Accumulating Attributes In Elixir

Typically, if you declare an attribute twice like this:

@unit_of_measure :fathom
@unit_of_measure :stone

The second declaration will override the first:

IO.inspect(@unit_of_measure)
# :stone

But by registering the attribute by calling register_attribute you get the opportunity to set the attribute to accumulate. When accumulating, each declaration will push the declared value onto the head of a list.

defmodule TriColarian do
  @moduledoc false

  Module.register_attribute(__MODULE__, :colors, accumulate: true)

  @colors :green
  @colors :red
  @colors :yellow

  def colors do
    @colors
  end
end

TriColarian.colors()
# [:yellow, :red, :green]

At compile time, perhaps when executing a macro, you have the opportunity to dynamically build a list.

I learned this when Andrew Summers gave a talk on DSLs at Chicago Elixir this past Wednesday. You can see his slides here