In LISP, characters are represented as data objects of type character.
You can denote a character object preceding # before the character itself. For example, #a means the character a.
Space and other special characters can be denoted by preceding # before the name of the character. For example, #SPACE represents the space character.
The following example demonstrates this −
Example
Create a new source code file named main.lisp and type the following code in it.
(write ''a) (terpri) (write #a) (terpri) (write-char #a) (terpri) (write-char ''a)
When you execute the code, it returns the following result −
A #a a *** - WRITE-CHAR: argument A is not a character
Special Characters
Common LISP allows using the following special characters in your code. They are called the semi-standard characters.
- #Backspace
- #Tab
- #Linefeed
- #Page
- #Return
- #Rubout
Character Comparison Functions
Numeric comparison functions and operators, like, < and > do not work on characters. Common LISP provides other two sets of functions for comparing characters in your code.
One set is case-sensitive and the other case-insensitive.
The following table provides the functions −
| Case Sensitive Functions | Case-insensitive Functions | Description |
|---|---|---|
| char= | char-equal | Checks if the values of the operands are all equal or not, if yes then condition becomes true. |
| char/= | char-not-equal | Checks if the values of the operands are all different or not, if values are not equal then condition becomes true. |
| char< | char-lessp | Checks if the values of the operands are monotonically decreasing. |
| char> | char-greaterp | Checks if the values of the operands are monotonically increasing. |
| char<= | char-not-greaterp | Checks if the value of any left operand is greater than or equal to the value of next right operand, if yes then condition becomes true. |
| char>= | char-not-lessp | Checks if the value of any left operand is less than or equal to the value of its right operand, if yes then condition becomes true. |
Example
Create a new source code file named main.lisp and type the following code in it.
; case-sensitive comparison (write (char= #a #b)) (terpri) (write (char= #a #a)) (terpri) (write (char= #a #A)) (terpri) ;case-insensitive comparision (write (char-equal #a #A)) (terpri) (write (char-equal #a #b)) (terpri) (write (char-lessp #a #b #c)) (terpri) (write (char-greaterp #a #b #c))
When you execute the code, it returns the following result −
NIL T NIL T NIL T NIL