Next: Loop Examples, Up: Loop Facility [Contents][Index]
The cl-loop
macro essentially creates a mini-language within
Lisp that is specially tailored for describing loops. While this
language is a little strange-looking by the standards of regular Lisp,
it turns out to be very easy to learn and well-suited to its purpose.
Since cl-loop
is a macro, all parsing of the loop language
takes place at byte-compile time; compiled cl-loop
s are just
as efficient as the equivalent while
loops written longhand.
A loop construct consists of a series of clauses, each
introduced by a symbol like for
or do
. Clauses
are simply strung together in the argument list of cl-loop
,
with minimal extra parentheses. The various types of clauses
specify initializations, such as the binding of temporary
variables, actions to be taken in the loop, stepping actions,
and final cleanup.
Common Lisp specifies a certain general order of clauses in a loop:
(loop name-clause var-clauses… action-clauses…)
The name-clause optionally gives a name to the implicit
block that surrounds the loop. By default, the implicit block
is named nil
. The var-clauses specify what
variables should be bound during the loop, and how they should
be modified or iterated throughout the course of the loop. The
action-clauses are things to be done during the loop, such
as computing, collecting, and returning values.
The Emacs version of the cl-loop
macro is less restrictive about
the order of clauses, but things will behave most predictably if
you put the variable-binding clauses with
, for
, and
repeat
before the action clauses. As in Common Lisp,
initially
and finally
clauses can go anywhere.
Loops generally return nil
by default, but you can cause
them to return a value by using an accumulation clause like
collect
, an end-test clause like always
, or an
explicit return
clause to jump out of the implicit block.
(Because the loop body is enclosed in an implicit block, you can
also use regular Lisp cl-return
or cl-return-from
to
break out of the loop.)
The following sections give some examples of the loop macro in action, and describe the particular loop clauses in great detail. Consult the second edition of Steele for additional discussion and examples.
Next: Loop Examples, Up: Loop Facility [Contents][Index]