CODEWITHSUNDEEP
clojurelisp
user972946
user972946

Reputation:

Clojure: "=" compares values in collections, why cannot it compare two lists in this case?

See this example:

Clojure 1.4.0
user=> (def a 1)
#'user/a
user=> (def b 2)
#'user/b
user=> (= [1 2] [a b])
true
user=> (= '(1 2) '(1 2))
true
user=> (= '(1 2) '(a b))
false

Why the last case does not work, and how do I make the last case work without having to convert list to vector?

Thank you!

Upvotes: 6

Views: 474

Answers (1)

dnolen
dnolen

Reputation: 18556

You are comparing a list containing 1 & 2 with a list containing the symbols a & b. Symbols are legitimate values in Clojure. '(a b) is equivalent to (list 'a 'b) not (list a b).

 (= '(1 2) (list a b))

Is probably the comparison you want.

Upvotes: 15

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