CODEWITHSUNDEEP
clojure
murtaza52
murtaza52

Reputation: 47441

why the 2 way indirection of symbol -> var -> value

Why does clojure have symbols mapped to vars, instead they being mapped directly to values ? What is the idea behind the 2 way indirection of symbol resolving to a var, and a var referencing a value ?

What is var actually, is it just a memory reference, or a java class which does much more ?

The docs says that this is needed so that the values can be redefined, however why cant they redefined if there was no 2 way indirection ?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 99

Answers (1)

Alan Thompson
Alan Thompson

Reputation: 29984

You can find a detailed description of the Clojure var mechanism here: When to use a Var instead of a function?

Since Clojure data is immutable, you need an indirection mechanism like a var or atom to allow for "change". This is a bit like having a variable name in Java, which is actually a pointer to a string like Fred. Later, you may reassign name to point to a different string Barney.

Upvotes: 2

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