CODEWITHSUNDEEP
clojure
Nick
Nick

Reputation: 9061

What does the clojure syntax '[] mean?

'() is a syntax sugar for (quote ()). But what does '[] mean? Quote a vector?

For example:

(use '[clojure.test :as t])

(.get '[a b c] 1)

(.containsAll '[a b c] '[b c])

((fnth 5) '[a b c d e])

Upvotes: 3

Views: 115

Answers (1)

Leonid Beschastny
Leonid Beschastny

Reputation: 51500

Precisely. ' is a synonym for quote, so

'[a b c]

is just

(quote [a b c])

quote prevents evaluation of a Clojure code, so quoting the whole vector is essentially the same as quoting every single element of it:

['a 'b 'c]

It allows you to produce a vector of symbols, without explicitly calling symbol function:

[(symbol "a") (symbol "b") (symbol "c")]

Upvotes: 13

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