(values) < no values >
(values 1) 1
(values 1 2) 1, 2
(values 1 2 3) 1, 2, 3
(values (values 1 2 3) 4 5) 1, 4, 5
(defun polar (x y)
(values (sqrt (+ (* x x) (* y y))) (atan y x))) POLAR
(multiple-value-bind (r theta) (polar 3.0 4.0)
(vector r theta))
#(5.0 0.927295)
Sometimes it is desirable to indicate explicitly that a function returns
exactly one value. For example, the function
(defun foo (x y)
(floor (+ x y) y)) FOO
returns two values because floor returns
two values. It may be that the second value makes no sense,
or that for efficiency reasons it is desired not to compute the
second value. values is the standard idiom
for indicating that only one value is to be returned:
(defun foo (x y)
(values (floor (+ x y) y))) FOO
This works because values
returns exactly one value for each of
args; as for any function call,
if any of args produces more than one value, all but the
first are discarded.