101 lines
3.4 KiB
Plaintext
101 lines
3.4 KiB
Plaintext
@c -*-texinfo-*-
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@c This is part of the GNU Emacs Lisp Reference Manual.
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@c Copyright (C) 2017--2024 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
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@c See the file elisp.texi for copying conditions.
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@node Records
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@chapter Records
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@cindex records
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The purpose of records is to allow programmers to create objects
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with new types that are not built into Emacs. They are used as the
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underlying representation of @code{cl-defstruct} and @code{defclass}
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instances.
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Internally, a record object is much like a vector; its slots can be
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accessed using @code{aref} and it can be copied using
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@code{copy-sequence}. However, the first slot is used to hold its
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type as returned by @code{type-of}. Also, in the current
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implementation records can have at most 4096 slots, whereas vectors
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can be much larger. Like arrays, records use zero-origin indexing:
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the first slot has index 0.
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The type slot should be a symbol or a type descriptor. If it's a
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type descriptor, the symbol naming its type will be returned;
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@ref{Type Descriptors}. Any other kind of object is returned as-is.
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The printed representation of records is @samp{#s} followed by a
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list specifying the contents. The first list element must be the
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record type. The following elements are the record slots.
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To avoid conflicts with other type names, Lisp programs that define
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new types of records should normally use the naming conventions of the
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package where these record types are introduced for the names of the
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types. Note that the names of the types which could possibly conflict
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might not be known at the time the package defining a record type is
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loaded; they could be loaded at some future point in time.
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A record is considered a constant for evaluation: the result of
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evaluating it is the same record. This does not evaluate or even
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examine the slots. @xref{Self-Evaluating Forms}.
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@menu
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* Record Functions:: Functions for records.
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* Backward Compatibility:: Compatibility for cl-defstruct.
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@end menu
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@node Record Functions
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@section Record Functions
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@defun recordp object
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This function returns @code{t} if @var{object} is a record.
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@example
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@group
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(recordp #s(a))
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@result{} t
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@end group
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@end example
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@end defun
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@defun record type &rest objects
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This function creates and returns a record whose type is @var{type}
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and remaining slots are the rest of the arguments, @var{objects}.
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@example
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@group
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(record 'foo 23 [bar baz] "rats")
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@result{} #s(foo 23 [bar baz] "rats")
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@end group
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@end example
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@end defun
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@defun make-record type length object
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This function returns a new record with type @var{type} and
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@var{length} more slots, each initialized to @var{object}.
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@example
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@group
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(setq sleepy (make-record 'foo 9 'Z))
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@result{} #s(foo Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z Z)
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@end group
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@end example
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@end defun
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To copy trees consisting of records, vectors and conses (lists), use
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@code{copy-tree} with its optional second argument non-@code{nil}.
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@xref{Building Lists, copy-tree}.
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@node Backward Compatibility
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@section Backward Compatibility
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Code compiled with older versions of @code{cl-defstruct} that
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doesn't use records may run into problems when used in a new Emacs.
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To alleviate this, Emacs detects when an old @code{cl-defstruct} is
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used, and enables a mode in which @code{type-of} handles old struct
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objects as if they were records.
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@defun cl-old-struct-compat-mode arg
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If @var{arg} is positive, enable backward compatibility with old-style
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structs.
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@end defun
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