Simple symbols

Simple symbols have no properties other than their name, an immutable string. They have the useful property that two simple symbols are identical (in the sense of eq?, eqv? and equal?) if and only if their names are spelled the same way. A symbol literal is formed using quote.

Procedure: symbol? obj ¶

Return #t if obj is a symbol, #f otherwise.

(symbol? 'foo)          ⇒ #t
(symbol? (car '(a b)))  ⇒ #t
(symbol? "bar")         ⇒ #f
(symbol? 'nil)          ⇒ #t
(symbol? '())           ⇒ #f
(symbol? #f)            ⇒ #f

Procedure: symbol->string symbol ¶

Return the name of symbol as an immutable string.

(symbol->string 'flying-fish)                   ⇒  "flying-fish"
(symbol->string 'Martin)                        ⇒  "Martin"
(symbol->string (string->symbol "Malvina"))     ⇒  "Malvina"

Procedure: string->symbol string ¶

Return the symbol whose name is string.

(eq? 'mISSISSIppi 'mississippi)
⇒ #f

(string->symbol "mISSISSIppi")
⇒ the symbol with name "mISSISSIppi"

(eq? 'bitBlt (string->symbol "bitBlt"))
⇒ #t

(eq? 'JollyWog (string->symbol (symbol->string 'JollyWog)))
⇒ #t

(string=? "K. Harper, M.D."
          (symbol->string (string->symbol "K. Harper, M.D.")))
⇒ #t