ToC DocOverview CGDoc RelNotes Index PermutedIndex
Allegro CL
Home Previous Up Next Table of Contents Index
  ANSI Common Lisp   5 Data and Control Flow   5.3 Dictionary of Data and Control Flow

5.3.33 eq Function

Syntax:
eq x y    generalized-boolean

Arguments and Values:
x - an object.

y - an object.

generalized-boolean - a generalized boolean.

Description:
Returns true if its arguments are the same, identical object; otherwise, returns false.

Examples:
 (eq 'a 'b)  false
 (eq 'a 'a)  true
 (eq 3 3)
 true
ORfalse
 (eq 3 3.0)  false
 (eq 3.0 3.0)
 true
ORfalse
 (eq #c(3 -4) #c(3 -4))
 true
ORfalse
 (eq #c(3 -4.0) #c(3 -4))  false
 (eq (cons 'a 'b) (cons 'a 'c))  false
 (eq (cons 'a 'b) (cons 'a 'b))  false
 (eq '(a . b) '(a . b))
 true
ORfalse
 (progn (setq x (cons 'a 'b)) (eq x x))  true
 (progn (setq x '(a . b)) (eq x x))  true
 (eq #\A #\A)
 true
ORfalse
 (let ((x "Foo")) (eq x x))  true
 (eq "Foo" "Foo")
 true
ORfalse
 (eq "Foo" (copy-seq "Foo"))  false
 (eq "FOO" "foo")  false
 (eq "string-seq" (copy-seq "string-seq"))  false
 (let ((x 5)) (eq x x))
 true
ORfalse

See Also:
eql, equal, equalp, =, Section 3.2 Compilation

Notes:
Objects that appear the same when printed are not necessarily eq to each other. Symbols that print the same usually are eq to each other because of the use of the intern function. However, numbers with the same value need not be eq, and two similar lists are usually not identical.

An implementation is permitted to make "copies" of characters and numbers at any time. The effect is that Common Lisp makes no guarantee that eq is true even when both its arguments are "the same thing" if that thing is a character or number.

Most Common Lisp operators use eql rather than eq to compare objects, or else they default to eql and only use eq if specifically requested to do so. However, the following operators are defined to use eq rather than eql in a way that cannot be overridden by the code which employs them:

Operators that always prefer EQ over EQL
catch getf throw
get remf
get-properties remprop

Allegro CL Implementation Details:
None.

Home Previous Up Next Table of Contents Index
© Franz Inc. 1998-2005 - File last updated 6-21-2002