A symbol is an object with a unique name. This chapter describes symbols, their components, their property lists, and how they are created and interned. Separate chapters describe the use of symbols as variables and as function names; see section Variables, and section Functions. For the precise read syntax for symbols, see section Symbol Type.
You can test whether an arbitrary Lisp object is a symbol
with symbolp:
t if object is a symbol, nil
otherwise.
Each symbol has four components (or "cells"), each of which references another object:
symbol-name in section Creating and Interning Symbols.
symbol-value in
section Accessing Variable Values.
symbol-function in section Accessing Function Cell Contents.
symbol-plist in section Property Lists.
The print name cell always holds a string, and cannot be changed. The other three cells can be set individually to any specified Lisp object.
The print name cell holds the string that is the name of the symbol. Since symbols are represented textually by their names, it is important not to have two symbols with the same name. The Lisp reader ensures this: every time it reads a symbol, it looks for an existing symbol with the specified name before it creates a new one. (In GNU Emacs Lisp, this lookup uses a hashing algorithm and an obarray; see section Creating and Interning Symbols.)
In normal usage, the function cell usually contains a function
(see section Functions) or a macro (see section Macros), as that is what the
Lisp interpreter expects to see there (see section Evaluation). Keyboard
macros (see section Keyboard Macros), keymaps (see section Keymaps) and autoload
objects (see section Autoloading) are also sometimes stored in the function
cells of symbols. We often refer to "the function foo" when we
really mean the function stored in the function cell of the symbol
foo. We make the distinction only when necessary.
The property list cell normally should hold a correctly formatted property list (see section Property Lists), as a number of functions expect to see a property list there.
The function cell or the value cell may be void, which means
that the cell does not reference any object. (This is not the same
thing as holding the symbol void, nor the same as holding the
symbol nil.) Examining a function or value cell that is void
results in an error, such as `Symbol's value as variable is void'.
The four functions symbol-name, symbol-value,
symbol-plist, and symbol-function return the contents of
the four cells of a symbol. Here as an example we show the contents of
the four cells of the symbol buffer-file-name:
(symbol-name 'buffer-file-name)
=> "buffer-file-name"
(symbol-value 'buffer-file-name)
=> "/gnu/elisp/symbols.texi"
(symbol-plist 'buffer-file-name)
=> (variable-documentation 29529)
(symbol-function 'buffer-file-name)
=> #<subr buffer-file-name>
Because this symbol is the variable which holds the name of the file
being visited in the current buffer, the value cell contents we see are
the name of the source file of this chapter of the Emacs Lisp Manual.
The property list cell contains the list (variable-documentation
29529) which tells the documentation functions where to find the
documentation string for the variable buffer-file-name in the
`DOC-version' file. (29529 is the offset from the beginning
of the `DOC-version' file to where that documentation string
begins--see section Documentation Basics.) The function cell contains
the function for returning the name of the file.
buffer-file-name names a primitive function, which has no read
syntax and prints in hash notation (see section Primitive Function Type). A
symbol naming a function written in Lisp would have a lambda expression
(or a byte-code object) in this cell.
A definition in Lisp is a special form that announces your intention to use a certain symbol in a particular way. In Emacs Lisp, you can define a symbol as a variable, or define it as a function (or macro), or both independently.
A definition construct typically specifies a value or meaning for the symbol for one kind of use, plus documentation for its meaning when used in this way. Thus, when you define a symbol as a variable, you can supply an initial value for the variable, plus documentation for the variable.
defvar and defconst are special forms that define a
symbol as a global variable. They are documented in detail in
section Defining Global Variables. For defining user option variables that can
be customized, use defcustom (see section Writing Customization Definitions).
defun defines a symbol as a function, creating a lambda
expression and storing it in the function cell of the symbol. This
lambda expression thus becomes the function definition of the symbol.
(The term "function definition", meaning the contents of the function
cell, is derived from the idea that defun gives the symbol its
definition as a function.) defsubst and defalias are two
other ways of defining a function. See section Functions.
defmacro defines a symbol as a macro. It creates a macro
object and stores it in the function cell of the symbol. Note that a
given symbol can be a macro or a function, but not both at once, because
both macro and function definitions are kept in the function cell, and
that cell can hold only one Lisp object at any given time.
See section Macros.
In Emacs Lisp, a definition is not required in order to use a symbol
as a variable or function. Thus, you can make a symbol a global
variable with setq, whether you define it first or not. The real
purpose of definitions is to guide programmers and programming tools.
They inform programmers who read the code that certain symbols are
intended to be used as variables, or as functions. In addition,
utilities such as `etags' and `make-docfile' recognize
definitions, and add appropriate information to tag tables and the
`DOC-version' file. See section Access to Documentation Strings.
To understand how symbols are created in GNU Emacs Lisp, you must know how Lisp reads them. Lisp must ensure that it finds the same symbol every time it reads the same set of characters. Failure to do so would cause complete confusion.
When the Lisp reader encounters a symbol, it reads all the characters of the name. Then it "hashes" those characters to find an index in a table called an obarray. Hashing is an efficient method of looking something up. For example, instead of searching a telephone book cover to cover when looking up Jan Jones, you start with the J's and go from there. That is a simple version of hashing. Each element of the obarray is a bucket which holds all the symbols with a given hash code; to look for a given name, it is sufficient to look through all the symbols in the bucket for that name's hash code.
If a symbol with the desired name is found, the reader uses that symbol. If the obarray does not contain a symbol with that name, the reader makes a new symbol and adds it to the obarray. Finding or adding a symbol with a certain name is called interning it, and the symbol is then called an interned symbol.
Interning ensures that each obarray has just one symbol with any particular name. Other like-named symbols may exist, but not in the same obarray. Thus, the reader gets the same symbols for the same names, as long as you keep reading with the same obarray.
No obarray contains all symbols; in fact, some symbols are not in any obarray. They are called uninterned symbols. An uninterned symbol has the same four cells as other symbols; however, the only way to gain access to it is by finding it in some other object or as the value of a variable.
In Emacs Lisp, an obarray is actually a vector. Each element of the
vector is a bucket; its value is either an interned symbol whose name
hashes to that bucket, or 0 if the bucket is empty. Each interned
symbol has an internal link (invisible to the user) to the next symbol
in the bucket. Because these links are invisible, there is no way to
find all the symbols in an obarray except using mapatoms (below).
The order of symbols in a bucket is not significant.
In an empty obarray, every element is 0, and you can create an obarray
with (make-vector length 0). This is the only
valid way to create an obarray. Prime numbers as lengths tend
to result in good hashing; lengths one less than a power of two are also
good.
Do not try to put symbols in an obarray yourself. This does
not work--only intern can enter a symbol in an obarray properly.
Common Lisp note: In Common Lisp, a single symbol may be interned in several obarrays.
Most of the functions below take a name and sometimes an obarray as
arguments. A wrong-type-argument error is signaled if the name
is not a string, or if the obarray is not a vector.
(symbol-name 'foo)
=> "foo"
Warning: Changing the string by substituting characters does change the name of the symbol, but fails to update the obarray, so don't do it!
nil. In the example below,
the value of sym is not eq to foo because it is a
distinct uninterned symbol whose name is also `foo'.
(setq sym (make-symbol "foo"))
=> foo
(eq sym 'foo)
=> nil
intern
creates a new one, adds it to the obarray, and returns it. If
obarray is omitted, the value of the global variable
obarray is used.
(setq sym (intern "foo"))
=> foo
(eq sym 'foo)
=> t
(setq sym1 (intern "foo" other-obarray))
=> foo
(eq sym 'foo)
=> nil
Common Lisp note: In Common Lisp, you can intern an existing symbol in an obarray. In Emacs Lisp, you cannot do this, because the argument to
internmust be a string, not a symbol.
nil if obarray has no symbol with that name.
Therefore, you can use intern-soft to test whether a symbol with
a given name is already interned. If obarray is omitted, the
value of the global variable obarray is used.
(intern-soft "frazzle") ; No such symbol exists.
=> nil
(make-symbol "frazzle") ; Create an uninterned one.
=> frazzle
(intern-soft "frazzle") ; That one cannot be found.
=> nil
(setq sym (intern "frazzle")) ; Create an interned one.
=> frazzle
(intern-soft "frazzle") ; That one can be found!
=> frazzle
(eq sym 'frazzle) ; And it is the same one.
=> t
intern and
read.
nil. If obarray is
omitted, it defaults to the value of obarray, the standard
obarray for ordinary symbols.
(setq count 0)
=> 0
(defun count-syms (s)
(setq count (1+ count)))
=> count-syms
(mapatoms 'count-syms)
=> nil
count
=> 1871
See documentation in section Access to Documentation Strings, for another
example using mapatoms.
symbol is not actually in the obarray, unintern does
nothing. If obarray is nil, the current obarray is used.
If you provide a string instead of a symbol as symbol, it stands
for a symbol name. Then unintern deletes the symbol (if any) in
the obarray which has that name. If there is no such symbol,
unintern does nothing.
If unintern does delete a symbol, it returns t. Otherwise
it returns nil.
A property list (plist for short) is a list of paired elements stored in the property list cell of a symbol. Each of the pairs associates a property name (usually a symbol) with a property or value. Property lists are generally used to record information about a symbol, such as its documentation as a variable, the name of the file where it was defined, or perhaps even the grammatical class of the symbol (representing a word) in a language-understanding system.
Character positions in a string or buffer can also have property lists. See section Text Properties.
The property names and values in a property list can be any Lisp
objects, but the names are usually symbols. Property list functions
compare the property names using eq. Here is an example of a
property list, found on the symbol progn when the compiler is
loaded:
(lisp-indent-function 0 byte-compile byte-compile-progn)
Here lisp-indent-function and byte-compile are property
names, and the other two elements are the corresponding values.
Association lists (see section Association Lists) are very similar to property lists. In contrast to association lists, the order of the pairs in the property list is not significant since the property names must be distinct.
Property lists are better than association lists for attaching
information to various Lisp function names or variables. If your
program keeps all of its associations in one association list, it will
typically need to search that entire list each time it checks for an
association. This could be slow. By contrast, if you keep the same
information in the property lists of the function names or variables
themselves, each search will scan only the length of one property list,
which is usually short. This is why the documentation for a variable is
recorded in a property named variable-documentation. The byte
compiler likewise uses properties to record those functions needing
special treatment.
However, association lists have their own advantages. Depending on your application, it may be faster to add an association to the front of an association list than to update a property. All properties for a symbol are stored in the same property list, so there is a possibility of a conflict between different uses of a property name. (For this reason, it is a good idea to choose property names that are probably unique, such as by beginning the property name with the program's usual name-prefix for variables and functions.) An association list may be used like a stack where associations are pushed on the front of the list and later discarded; this is not possible with a property list.
(setplist 'foo '(a 1 b (2 3) c nil))
=> (a 1 b (2 3) c nil)
(symbol-plist 'foo)
=> (a 1 b (2 3) c nil)
For symbols in special obarrays, which are not used for ordinary purposes, it may make sense to use the property list cell in a nonstandard fashion; in fact, the abbrev mechanism does so (see section Abbrevs And Abbrev Expansion).
nil
is returned. Thus, there is no distinction between a value of
nil and the absence of the property.
The name property is compared with the existing property names
using eq, so any object is a legitimate property.
See put for an example.
put function returns value.
(put 'fly 'verb 'transitive)
=>'transitive
(put 'fly 'noun '(a buzzing little bug))
=> (a buzzing little bug)
(get 'fly 'verb)
=> transitive
(symbol-plist 'fly)
=> (verb transitive noun (a buzzing little bug))
These two functions are useful for manipulating property lists that are stored in places other than symbols:
(plist-get '(foo 4) 'foo)
=> 4
(setq my-plist '(bar t foo 4))
=> (bar t foo 4)
(setq my-plist (plist-put my-plist 'foo 69))
=> (bar t foo 69)
(setq my-plist (plist-put my-plist 'quux '(a)))
=> (bar t foo 69 quux (a))
You could define put in terms of plist-put as follows:
(defun put (symbol prop value)
(setplist symbol
(plist-put (symbol-plist symbol) prop value)))
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