make-symbol (Function)

Syntax:

Arguments and Values:

name—a string.

new-symbol—a fresh, uninterned symbol.

Description:

make-symbol creates and returns a fresh, uninterned symbol whose name is the given name. The new-symbol is neither bound nor fbound and has a null property list.

It is implementation-dependent whether the string that becomes the new-symbol's name is the given name or a copy of it. Once a string has been given as the name argument to make-symbol, the consequences are undefined if a subsequent attempt is made to alter that string.

Examples:

 (setq temp-string "temp") → "temp"
 (setq temp-symbol (make-symbol temp-string)) → #:|temp|
 (symbol-name temp-symbol) → "temp"
 (eq (symbol-name temp-symbol) temp-string) → implementation-dependent
 (find-symbol "temp") → NIL, NIL
 (eq (make-symbol temp-string) (make-symbol temp-string)) → false

Exceptional Situations:

Should signal an error of type type-error if name is not a string.

See Also:

copy-symbol

Notes:

No attempt is made by make-symbol to convert the case of the name to uppercase. The only case conversion which ever occurs for symbols is done by the Lisp reader. The program interface to symbol creation retains case, and the program interface to interning symbols is case-sensitive.