[erlang-questions] Can I do var-assignment in a function?

[Circular Function]

extract(Str) ->
    A = string:tokens(Str," ").
    lists:sort(A).

I could of course do this:
lists:sort(string:tokens(Str," ")).

But lets say I want a bigger function that slo includes some deeper function calls, lets say 4-5
calls deep.

That's the main thing I dislike about functional programming, it is very expressive but sometimes it is hard afterwards to follow what a function does and it is hard hwen you have to read what is happening from right to the left.
It is easier to reason about when I can split into several calls.

I guess it is doable but I can't figure out the syntax.



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