place - a place, the value of which is a proper list.

test - a designator for a function of two arguments that returns a generalized boolean.

test-not - a designator for a function of two arguments that returns a generalized boolean.

key - a designator for a function of one argument, or nil.

new-place-value - a list (the new value of place).

pushnew returns the new list that is stored in place.

Whether or not item is already a member of the list that is in place is determined by comparisons using :test or :test-not. The first argument to the :test or :test-not function is item; the second argument is an element of the list in place as returned by the :key function (if supplied).

If :key is supplied, it is used to extract the part to be tested from both item and the list element, as for adjoin.

The argument to the :key function is an element of the list stored in place. The :key function typically returns part part of the element of the list. If :key is not supplied or nil, the list element is used.

For information about the evaluation of subforms of place, see Section 5.1.1.1 Evaluation of Subforms to Places.

It is implementation-dependent whether or not pushnew actually executes the storing form for its place in the situation where the item is already a member of the list held by place.

 (setq x '(a (b c) d))  (A (B C) D)
 (pushnew 5 (cadr x))  (5 B C)   
 x  (A (5 B C) D)
 (pushnew 'b (cadr x))  (5 B C)  
 x  (A (5 B C) D)
 (setq lst '((1) (1 2) (1 2 3)))  ((1) (1 2) (1 2 3))
 (pushnew '(2) lst)  ((2) (1) (1 2) (1 2 3))
 (pushnew '(1) lst)  ((1) (2) (1) (1 2) (1 2 3))
 (pushnew '(1) lst :test 'equal)  ((1) (2) (1) (1 2) (1 2 3))
 (pushnew '(1) lst :key #'car)  ((1) (2) (1) (1 2) (1 2 3)) 

 (pushnew item place :test p)

 (setf place (adjoin item place :test p))