comparison lispref/sequences.texi @ 12098:a6eb5f12b0f3

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common property that all sequences have is that each is an ordered
collection of elements.

  An @dfn{array} is a single primitive object that has a slot for each
elements.  All the elements are accessible in constant time, but the
length of an existing array cannot be changed.  Both strings and vectors
are arrays.

  A list is a sequence of elements, but it is not a single primitive
object; it is made of cons cells, one cell per element.  Finding the
@var{n}th element requires looking through @var{n} cons cells, so
elements farther from the beginning of the list take longer to access.

         |  ______   ______________________  |
         | |      | |                      | |
         | | List | |         Array        | |
         | |      | |  ________   _______  | |   
         | |______| | |        | |       | | |
         |          | | String | | Vector| | |
         |          | |________| |_______| | |
         |          |______________________| |
         |___________________________________|
@end group
@end example

(elt [1 2 3 4] -1)
     @error{}Args out of range: [1 2 3 4], -1
@end group
@end example

This function duplicates @code{aref} (@pxref{Array Functions}) and
@code{nth} (@pxref{List Elements}), except that it works for any kind of
sequence.
@end defun

@node Arrays
@section Arrays
@cindex array

@item
The elements of an array may be referenced or changed with the functions
@code{aref} and @code{aset}, respectively (@pxref{Array Functions}).
@end itemize

  In principle, if you wish to have an array of characters, you could use
either a string or a vector.  In practice, we always choose strings for
such applications, for four reasons:

@itemize @bullet
@item
They occupy one-fourth the space of a vector of the same elements.

@item
Many of the specialized editing and I/O facilities of Emacs accept only
strings.  For example, you cannot insert a vector of characters into a
buffer the way you can insert a string.  @xref{Strings and Characters}.
@end itemize

@node Array Functions
@section Functions that Operate on Arrays

  In this section, we describe the functions that accept both strings

12098:a6eb5f12b0f3

common property that all sequences have is that each is an ordered
collection of elements.

  An @dfn{array} is a single primitive object that has a slot for each
elements.  All the elements are accessible in constant time, but the
length of an existing array cannot be changed.  Strings and vectors are
the two types of arrays.

  A list is a sequence of elements, but it is not a single primitive
object; it is made of cons cells, one cell per element.  Finding the
@var{n}th element requires looking through @var{n} cons cells, so
elements farther from the beginning of the list take longer to access.

         |  ______   ______________________  |
         | |      | |                      | |
         | | List | |         Array        | |
         | |      | |  ________   _______  | |   
         | |______| | |        | |       | | |
         |          | | Vector | | String| | |
         |          | |________| |_______| | |
         |          |______________________| |
         |___________________________________|
@end group
@end example

(elt [1 2 3 4] -1)
     @error{}Args out of range: [1 2 3 4], -1
@end group
@end example

This function generalizes @code{aref} (@pxref{Array Functions}) and
@code{nth} (@pxref{List Elements}).
@end defun

@node Arrays
@section Arrays
@cindex array

@item
The elements of an array may be referenced or changed with the functions
@code{aref} and @code{aset}, respectively (@pxref{Array Functions}).
@end itemize

  In principle, if you wish to have an array of text characters, you
could use either a string or a vector.  In practice, we always choose
strings for such applications, for four reasons:

@itemize @bullet
@item
They occupy one-fourth the space of a vector of the same elements.

@item
Many of the specialized editing and I/O facilities of Emacs accept only
strings.  For example, you cannot insert a vector of characters into a
buffer the way you can insert a string.  @xref{Strings and Characters}.
@end itemize

  By contrast, for an array of keyboard input characters (such as a key
sequence), a vector may be necessary, because many keyboard input
characters are outside the range that will fit in a string.  @xref{Key
Sequence Input}.

@node Array Functions
@section Functions that Operate on Arrays

  In this section, we describe the functions that accept both strings