Symbol (programming): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 09:32, 20 April 2023

Revision as of 16:59, 26 July 2023

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In Common Lisp symbols have the following attributes: a name, a value, a function, a list of properties and a package.<ref>[http://www.lispworks.com/documentation/HyperSpec/Body/t_symbol.htm Common Lisp HyperSpec, system class Symbol]</ref>

In Common Lisp it is also possible that a symbol is not interned in a package. Such symbols can be printed, but when read back, a new symbol needs to be created. Since it is not ''interned'', the original symbol can't not be retrieved from a package.

In Common Lisp symbols may use any characters, including whitespace, such as spaces and newlines. If a symbol contains a whitespace character it needs to be written as |this is a symbol|. Symbols can be used as identifiers for any kind of named programming constructs: variables, functions, macros, classes, types, goto tags and more.