Syntax tables are implemented as char-tables (see Char-Tables), but most Lisp programs don’t work directly with their elements. Syntax tables do not store syntax data as syntax descriptors (see Syntax Descriptors); they use an internal format, which is documented in this section. This internal format can also be assigned as syntax properties (see Syntax Properties).
Each entry in a syntax table is a raw syntax descriptor: a
cons cell of the form (syntax-code
. matching-char)
. syntax-code is an integer which
encodes the syntax class and syntax flags, according to the table
below. matching-char, if non-nil
, specifies a matching
character (similar to the second character in a syntax descriptor).
Use aref
(see Functions that Operate on Arrays) to get the raw syntax
descriptor of a character, e.g. (aref (syntax-table) ch)
.
Here are the syntax codes corresponding to the various syntax classes:
Code | Class | Code | Class |
0 | whitespace | 8 | paired delimiter |
1 | punctuation | 9 | escape |
2 | word | 10 | character quote |
3 | symbol | 11 | comment-start |
4 | open parenthesis | 12 | comment-end |
5 | close parenthesis | 13 | inherit |
6 | expression prefix | 14 | generic comment |
7 | string quote | 15 | generic string |
For example, in the standard syntax table, the entry for ‘(’ is
(4 . 41)
. 41 is the character code for ‘)’.
Syntax flags are encoded in higher order bits, starting 16 bits from the least significant bit. This table gives the power of two which corresponds to each syntax flag.
Prefix | Flag | Prefix | Flag |
‘1’ | (ash 1 16) | ‘p’ | (ash 1 20) |
‘2’ | (ash 1 17) | ‘b’ | (ash 1 21) |
‘3’ | (ash 1 18) | ‘n’ | (ash 1 22) |
‘4’ | (ash 1 19) | ‘c’ | (ash 1 23) |
Given a syntax descriptor desc (a string), this function returns the corresponding raw syntax descriptor.
Given a raw syntax descriptor syntax (an integer), this function returns the corresponding syntax descriptor (a character).
This function returns the raw syntax descriptor for the character in
the buffer after position pos, taking account of syntax
properties as well as the syntax table. If pos is outside the
buffer’s accessible portion (see accessible portion),
the return value is nil
.
This function returns the syntax code for the raw syntax descriptor syntax. More precisely, it takes the raw syntax descriptor’s syntax-code component, masks off the high 16 bits which record the syntax flags, and returns the resulting integer.
If syntax is nil
, the return value is nil
. This
is so that the expression
(syntax-class (syntax-after pos))
evaluates to nil
if pos
is outside the buffer’s
accessible portion, without throwing errors or returning an incorrect
code.