On Wednesday 31 May 2006 11:44 pm, Bruce J. Weimer, MD wrote: > My question is, is there something like an UNSTRING type function to get > this: > > CL-USER 3 > (unstring "foo") > FOO I think that you're asking how to convert a string to a symbol. The function is "intern", as in (intern "FOO"). I think that "intern" is an mnemonic for "internalize" - i.e. to make something into an internal symbol (a symbol which has been entered into the reader's symbol table) (btw. it is possible to create symbols that are not in the reader's symbol table, for example by using unintern to remove the symbol from the symbol table). Use capital letters, since CL treats non-caps as escaped chars, i.e. (intern "foo") results in the symbol |foo|, not FOO. pt
Bruce J. Weimer, MD wrote: > Please excuse me if this is too simple a question: > > If I QUOTE a name I get this: > > CL-USER 1 > 'foo > FOO > > I can use STRING to get this: > > CL-USER 2 > (string 'foo) > "FOO" > My question is, is there something like an UNSTRING type function to > get this: > > CL-USER 3 > (unstring "foo") > FOO > > Thanks in advance! > > Bruce. > > intern is what you are looking for: CL-USER 31 > (intern "NEWSYMBOL") NEWSYMBOL NIL but beware: CL-USER 32 > (intern "newsymbol") |newsymbol| NIL http://www.lispworks.com/reference/HyperSpec/Body/f_intern.htm will give you more information. Cheers, Denis.
'foo is a symbol and "foo" is a string.
If you want the name of the symbol as a string you can use symbol-name
or just string:
(symbol-name 'foo) => "FOO"
(string 'foo) => "FOO"
To create a symbol you can use intern:
(intern "FOO") => 'FOO
The Cookbook has a section on this:
http://cl-cookbook.sourceforge.net/strings.html#symbols
Hope that helps!
Cheers,
Chris Dean
http://www.lispworks.com/documentation/HyperSpec/Body/f_string.htm
http://www.lispworks.com/documentation/HyperSpec/Body/f_symb_2.htm
http://www.lispworks.com/documentation/HyperSpec/Body/f_intern.htm