A character @IGindex{character} is an object that represents a unitary token (e.g., a letter, a special symbol, or a "control character") in an aggregate quantity of text (e.g., a string or a text stream).
Common Lisp allows an implementation to provide support for international language characters as well as characters used in specialized arenas (e.g., mathematics).
The following figures contain lists of defined names applicable to characters.
Figure 13--1 lists some defined names relating to character attributes and character predicates.
alpha-char-p char-not-equal char> alphanumericp char-not-greaterp char>= both-case-p char-not-lessp digit-char-p char-code-limit char/= graphic-char-p char-equal char< lower-case-p char-greaterp char<= standard-char-p char-lessp char= upper-case-p
Figure 13--1: Character defined names -- 1
Figure 13--2 lists some character construction and conversion defined names.
char-code char-name code-char char-downcase char-upcase digit-char char-int character name-char
Figure 13--2: Character defined names -- 2
A script is one of possibly several sets that form an exhaustive partition of the type character.
The number of such sets and boundaries between them is implementation-defined. Common Lisp does not require these sets to be types, but an implementation is permitted to define such types as an extension. Since no character from one script can ever be a member of another script, it is generally more useful to speak about character repertoires.
Although the term "script" is chosen for definitional compatibility with ISO terminology, no conforming implementation is required to use any particular scripts standardized by ISO or by any other standards organization.
Whether and how the script or scripts used by any given implementation are named is implementation-dependent.
A repertoire @IGindex{repertoire} is a type specifier for a subtype of type character.
This term is generally used when describing a collection of characters independent of their coding. Characters in repertoires are only identified by name, by glyph, or by character description.
A repertoire can contain characters from several scripts, and a character can appear in more than one repertoire.
For some examples of repertoires, see the coded character standards ISO 8859/1, ISO 8859/2, and ISO 6937/2. Note, however, that although the term "repertoire" is chosen for definitional compatibility with ISO terminology, no conforming implementation is required to use repertoires standardized by ISO or any other standards organization.
Characters have only one standardized attribute: a code. A character's code is a non-negative integer. This code is composed from a character script and a character label in an implementation-dependent way. See the functions char-code and code-char.
Additional, implementation-defined attributes of characters are also permitted so that, for example, two characters with the same code may differ in some other, implementation-defined way.
For any implementation-defined attribute there is a distinguished value called the null @IGindex{null} value for that attribute. A character for which each implementation-defined attribute has the null value for that attribute is called a simple character. If the implementation has no implementation-defined attributes, then all characters are simple characters.
There are several (overlapping) categories of characters that have no formally associated type but that are nevertheless useful to name. They include graphic characters, alphabetic_1 characters, characters with case (uppercase and lowercase characters), numeric characters, alphanumeric characters, and digits (in a given radix).
For each implementation-defined attribute of a character, the documentation for that implementation must specify whether characters that differ only in that attribute are permitted to differ in whether are not they are members of one of the aforementioned categories.
Note that these terms are defined independently of any special syntax which might have been enabled in the current readtable.
Characters that are classified as graphic @IGindex{graphic} , or displayable, are each associated with a glyph, a visual representation of the character.
A graphic character is one that has a standard textual representation as a single glyph, such as A or * or =. Space, which effectively has a blank glyph, is defined to be a graphic.
Of the standard characters, newline is non-graphic and all others are graphic; see section Standard Characters.
Characters that are not graphic are called non-graphic @IGindex{non-graphic} .
Non-graphic characters are sometimes informally called "formatting characters" or "control characters."
#\Backspace, #\Tab, #\Rubout, #\Linefeed, #\Return, and #\Page, if they are supported by the implementation, are non-graphic.
The alphabetic_1 characters are a subset of the graphic characters. Of the standard characters, only these are the alphabetic_1 characters:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
Any implementation-defined character that has case must be alphabetic_1. For each implementation-defined graphic character that has no case, it is implementation-defined whether that character is alphabetic_1.
The characters with case are a subset of the alphabetic_1 characters. A character with case has the property of being either uppercase or lowercase. Every character with case is in one-to-one correspondence with some other character with the opposite case.
An uppercase character is one that has a corresponding lowercase character that is different (and can be obtained using char-downcase).
Of the standard characters, only these are uppercase characters:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
A lowercase character is one that has a corresponding uppercase character that is different (and can be obtained using char-upcase).
Of the standard characters, only these are lowercase characters:
a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z
The uppercase standard characters A through Z mentioned above respectively correspond to the lowercase standard characters a through z mentioned above. For example, the uppercase character E corresponds to the lowercase character e, and vice versa.
An implementation may define that other implementation-defined graphic characters have case. Such definitions must always be done in pairs--one uppercase character in one-to-one correspondence with one lowercase character.
The numeric characters are a subset of the graphic characters. Of the standard characters, only these are numeric characters:
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
For each implementation-defined graphic character that has no case, the implementation must define whether or not it is a numeric character.
The set of alphanumeric characters is the union of the set of alphabetic_1 characters and the set of numeric characters.
What qualifies as a digit depends on the radix (an integer between 2 and 36, inclusive). The potential digits are:
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Their respective weights are 0, 1, 2, ... 35. In any given radix n, only the first n potential digits are considered to be digits. For example, the digits in radix 2 are 0 and 1, the digits in radix 10 are 0 through 9, and the digits in radix 16 are 0 through F.
Case is not significant in digits; for example, in radix 16, both F and f are digits with weight 15.
Two characters that are eql, char=, or char-equal are not necessarily eq.
The total ordering on characters is guaranteed to have the following properties:
Of the standard characters, those which are alphanumeric obey the following partial ordering:
A<B<C<D<E<F<G<H<I<J<K<L<M<N<O<P<Q<R<S<T<U<V<W<X<Y<Z a<b<c<d<e<f<g<h<i<j<k<l<m<n<o<p<q<r<s<t<u<v<w<x<y<z 0<1<2<3<4<5<6<7<8<9 either 9<A or Z<0 either 9<a or z<0
This implies that, for standard characters, alphabetic_1 ordering holds within each case (uppercase and lowercase), and that the numeric characters as a group are not interleaved with alphabetic characters. However, the ordering or possible interleaving of uppercase characters and lowercase characters is implementation-defined.
The following character names must be present in all conforming implementations:
The following names are semi-standard; if an implementation supports them, they should be used for the described characters and no others.
In some implementations, one or more of these character names might denote a standard character; for example, #\Linefeed and #\Newline might be the same character in some implementations.
When the character #\Newline is written to an output file, the implementation must take the appropriate action to produce a line division. This might involve writing out a record or translating #\Newline to a CR/LF sequence. When reading, a corresponding reverse transformation must take place.
A character is sometimes represented merely by its code, and sometimes by another integer value which is composed from the code and all implementation-defined attributes (in an implementation-defined way that might vary between Lisp images even in the same implementation). This integer, returned by the function char-int, is called the character's "encoding." There is no corresponding function from a character's encoding back to the character, since its primary intended uses include things like hashing where an inverse operation is not really called for.
An implementation must document the character scripts it supports. For each character script supported, the documentation must describe at least the following:
character, t
A character is an object that represents a unitary token in an aggregate quantity of text; see section Character Concepts.
The types base-char and extended-char form an exhaustive partition of the type character.
section Character Concepts, section Sharpsign Backslash, section Printing Characters
base-char, character, t
The type base-char is defined as the upgraded array element type of standard-char. An implementation can support additional subtypes of type character (besides the ones listed in this standard) that might or might not be supertypes of type base-char. In addition, an implementation can define base-char to be the same type as character.
Base characters are distinguished in the following respects:
Whether a character is a base character depends on the way that an implementation represents strings, and not any other properties of the implementation or the host operating system. For example, one implementation might encode all strings as characters having 16-bit encodings, and another might have two kinds of strings: those with characters having 8-bit encodings and those with characters having 16-bit encodings. In the first implementation, the type base-char is equivalent to the type character: there is only one kind of string. In the second implementation, the base characters might be those characters that could be stored in a string of characters having 8-bit encodings. In such an implementation, the type base-char is a proper subtype of the type character.
The type standard-char is a
subtype of type base-char.
standard-char,
base-char,
character, t
A fixed set of 96 characters required to be present in all conforming implementations. Standard characters are defined in section Standard Characters.
Any character that is not simple is not a standard character.
section Standard Characters
extended-char, character, t
The type extended-char is equivalent to the type (and character (not base-char)).
The type extended-char might have no elements_4 in implementations in which all characters are of type base-char.
[Function]
{char=} {&rest characters^+} => generalized-boolean
{char/=} {&rest characters^+} => generalized-boolean
{char<} {&rest characters^+} => generalized-boolean
{char>} {&rest characters^+} => generalized-boolean
{char<=} {&rest characters^+} => generalized-boolean
{char>=} {&rest characters^+} => generalized-boolean
char-equal {&rest characters^+} => generalized-boolean
char-not-equal {&rest characters^+} => generalized-boolean
char-lessp {&rest characters^+} => generalized-boolean
char-greaterp {&rest characters^+} => generalized-boolean
char-not-greaterp {&rest characters^+} => generalized-boolean
char-not-lessp {&rest characters^+} => generalized-boolean
character---a character.
generalized-boolean---a generalized boolean.
These predicates compare characters.
char= returns true if all characters are the same; otherwise, it returns false.
If two characters differ in any implementation-defined attributes, then they are not char=.
char/= returns true if all characters are different; otherwise, it returns false.
char< returns true if the characters are monotonically increasing; otherwise, it returns false.
If two characters have identical implementation-defined attributes, then their ordering by char< is consistent with the numerical ordering by the predicate < on their codes.
char> returns true if the characters are monotonically decreasing; otherwise, it returns false.
If two characters have identical implementation-defined attributes, then their ordering by char> is consistent with the numerical ordering by the predicate > on their codes.
char<= returns true if the characters are monotonically nondecreasing; otherwise, it returns false.
If two characters have identical implementation-defined attributes, then their ordering by char<= is consistent with the numerical ordering by the predicate <= on their codes.
char>= returns true if the characters are monotonically nonincreasing; otherwise, it returns false.
If two characters have identical implementation-defined attributes, then their ordering by char>= is consistent with the numerical ordering by the predicate >= on their codes.
char-equal, char-not-equal, char-lessp, char-greaterp, char-not-greaterp, and char-not-lessp are similar to char=, char/=, char<, char>, char<=, char>=, respectively, except that they ignore differences in case and
might have an implementation-defined behavior for non-simple characters. For example, an implementation might define that char-equal, etc. ignore certain implementation-defined attributes. The effect, if any, of each implementation-defined attribute upon these functions must be specified as part of the definition of that attribute.
(char= #\d #\d) => true (char= #\A #\a) => false (char= #\d #\x) => false (char= #\d #\D) => false (char/= #\d #\d) => false (char/= #\d #\x) => true (char/= #\d #\D) => true (char= #\d #\d #\d #\d) => true (char/= #\d #\d #\d #\d) => false (char= #\d #\d #\x #\d) => false (char/= #\d #\d #\x #\d) => false (char= #\d #\y #\x #\c) => false (char/= #\d #\y #\x #\c) => true (char= #\d #\c #\d) => false (char/= #\d #\c #\d) => false (char< #\d #\x) => true (char<= #\d #\x) => true (char< #\d #\d) => false (char<= #\d #\d) => true (char< #\a #\e #\y #\z) => true (char<= #\a #\e #\y #\z) => true (char< #\a #\e #\e #\y) => false (char<= #\a #\e #\e #\y) => true (char> #\e #\d) => true (char>= #\e #\d) => true (char> #\d #\c #\b #\a) => true (char>= #\d #\c #\b #\a) => true (char> #\d #\d #\c #\a) => false (char>= #\d #\d #\c #\a) => true (char> #\e #\d #\b #\c #\a) => false (char>= #\e #\d #\b #\c #\a) => false (char> #\z #\A) => implementation-dependent (char> #\Z #\a) => implementation-dependent (char-equal #\A #\a) => true (stable-sort (list #\b #\A #\B #\a #\c #\C) #'char-lessp) => (#\A #\a #\b #\B #\c #\C) (stable-sort (list #\b #\A #\B #\a #\c #\C) #'char<) => (#\A #\B #\C #\a #\b #\c) ;Implementation A => (#\a #\b #\c #\A #\B #\C) ;Implementation B => (#\a #\A #\b #\B #\c #\C) ;Implementation C => (#\A #\a #\B #\b #\C #\c) ;Implementation D => (#\A #\B #\a #\b #\C #\c) ;Implementation E
Should signal an error of type program-error if at least one character is not supplied.
section Character Syntax, section Documentation of Implementation-Defined Scripts
If characters differ in their code attribute or any implementation-defined attribute, they are considered to be different by char=.
There is no requirement that (eq c1 c2) be true merely because (char= c1 c2) is true. While eq can distinguish two characters that char= does not, it is distinguishing them not as characters, but in some sense on the basis of a lower level implementation characteristic. If (eq c1 c2) is true, then (char= c1 c2) is also true. eql and equal compare characters in the same way that char= does.
The manner in which case is used by char-equal, char-not-equal, char-lessp, char-greaterp, char-not-greaterp, and char-not-lessp implies an ordering for standard characters such that A=a, B=b, and so on, up to Z=z, and furthermore either 9<A or Z<0.
character character => denoted-character
character---a character designator.
denoted-character---a character.
Returns the character denoted by the character designator.
(character #\a) => #\a (character "a") => #\a (character 'a) => #\A (character '\a) => #\a (character 65.) is an error. (character 'apple) is an error.
Should signal an error of type type-error if object is not a character designator.
section coerce [Function]
(character object) == (coerce object 'character)
characterp object => generalized-boolean
object---an object.
generalized-boolean---a generalized boolean.
Returns true if object is of type character; otherwise, returns false.
(characterp #\a) => true (characterp 'a) => false (characterp "a") => false (characterp 65.) => false (characterp #\Newline) => true ;; This next example presupposes an implementation ;; in which #\Rubout is an implementation-defined character. (characterp #\Rubout) => true
section character [Function] (type and function), section typep [Function]
(characterp object) == (typep object 'character)
alpha-char-p character => generalized-boolean
character---a character.
generalized-boolean---a generalized boolean.
Returns true if character is an alphabetic_1 character; otherwise, returns false.
(alpha-char-p #\a) => true (alpha-char-p #\5) => false (alpha-char-p #\Newline) => false ;; This next example presupposes an implementation ;; in which #\\alpha is a defined character. (alpha-char-p #\\alpha) => implementation-dependent
None. (In particular, the results of this predicate are independent of any special syntax which might have been enabled in the current readtable.)
Should signal an error of type type-error if character is not a character.
section alphanumericp [Function] , section Documentation of Implementation-Defined Scripts
alphanumericp character => generalized-boolean
character---a character.
generalized-boolean---a generalized boolean.
Returns true if character is an alphabetic_1 character or a numeric character; otherwise, returns false.
(alphanumericp #\Z) => true (alphanumericp #\9) => true (alphanumericp #\Newline) => false (alphanumericp #\#) => false
None. (In particular, the results of this predicate are independent of any special syntax which might have been enabled in the current readtable.)
Should signal an error of type type-error if character is not a character.
section alpha-char-p [Function] , section graphic-char-p [Function] , section digit-char-p [Function]
Alphanumeric characters are graphic as defined by graphic-char-p. The alphanumeric characters are a subset of the graphic characters. The standard characters A through Z, a through z, and 0 through 9 are alphanumeric characters.
(alphanumericp x) == (or (alpha-char-p x) (not (null (digit-char-p x))))
digit-char weight {&optional radix} => char
weight---a non-negative integer.
radix---a radix. The default is 10.
char---a character or false.
If weight is less than radix, digit-char returns a character which has that weight when considered as a digit in the specified radix. If the resulting character is to be an alphabetic_1 character, it will be an uppercase character.
If weight is greater than or equal to radix, digit-char returns false.
(digit-char 0) => #\0 (digit-char 10 11) => #\A (digit-char 10 10) => false (digit-char 7) => #\7 (digit-char 12) => false (digit-char 12 16) => #\C ;not #\c (digit-char 6 2) => false (digit-char 1 2) => #\1
section digit-char-p [Function] , section graphic-char-p [Function] , section Character Syntax
digit-char-p char {&optional radix} => weight
char---a character.
radix---a radix. The default is 10.
weight---either a non-negative integer less than radix, or false.
Tests whether char is a digit in the specified radix (i.e., with a weight less than radix). If it is a digit in that radix, its weight is returned as an integer; otherwise nil is returned.
(digit-char-p #\5) => 5
(digit-char-p #\5 2) => false
(digit-char-p #\A) => false
(digit-char-p #\a) => false
(digit-char-p #\A 11) => 10
(digit-char-p #\a 11) => 10
(mapcar #'(lambda (radix)
(map 'list #'(lambda (x) (digit-char-p x radix))
"059AaFGZ"))
'(2 8 10 16 36))
=> ((0 NIL NIL NIL NIL NIL NIL NIL)
(0 5 NIL NIL NIL NIL NIL NIL)
(0 5 9 NIL NIL NIL NIL NIL)
(0 5 9 10 10 15 NIL NIL)
(0 5 9 10 10 15 16 35))
None. (In particular, the results of this predicate are independent of any special syntax which might have been enabled in the current readtable.)
section alphanumericp [Function]
Digits are graphic characters.
graphic-char-p char => generalized-boolean
char---a character.
generalized-boolean---a generalized boolean.
Returns true if character is a graphic character; otherwise, returns false.
(graphic-char-p #\G) => true (graphic-char-p #\#) => true (graphic-char-p #\Space) => true (graphic-char-p #\Newline) => false
Should signal an error of type type-error if character is not a character.
@xref{read; read-preserving-whitespace} , section Character Syntax, section Documentation of Implementation-Defined Scripts
standard-char-p character => generalized-boolean
character---a character.
generalized-boolean---a generalized boolean.
Returns true if character is of type standard-char; otherwise, returns false.
(standard-char-p #\Space) => true (standard-char-p #\~) => true ;; This next example presupposes an implementation ;; in which #\Bell is a defined character. (standard-char-p #\Bell) => false
Should signal an error of type type-error if character is not a character.
char-upcase character => corresponding-character
char-downcase character => corresponding-character
character, corresponding-character---a character.
If character is a lowercase character, char-upcase returns the corresponding uppercase character. Otherwise, char-upcase just returns the given character.
If character is an uppercase character, char-downcase returns the corresponding lowercase character. Otherwise, char-downcase just returns the given character.
The result only ever differs from character in its code attribute; all implementation-defined attributes are preserved.
(char-upcase #\a) => #\A
(char-upcase #\A) => #\A
(char-downcase #\a) => #\a
(char-downcase #\A) => #\a
(char-upcase #\9) => #\9
(char-downcase #\9) => #\9
(char-upcase #\@) => #\@
(char-downcase #\@) => #\@
;; Note that this next example might run for a very long time in
;; some implementations if CHAR-CODE-LIMIT happens to be very large
;; for that implementation.
(dotimes (code char-code-limit)
(let ((char (code-char code)))
(when char
(unless (cond ((upper-case-p char) (char= (char-upcase (char-downcase char)) char))
((lower-case-p char) (char= (char-downcase (char-upcase char)) char))
(t (and (char= (char-upcase (char-downcase char)) char)
(char= (char-downcase (char-upcase char)) char))))
(return char)))))
=> NIL
Should signal an error of type type-error if character is not a character.
@xref{upper-case-p; lower-case-p; both-case-p} , section alpha-char-p [Function] , section Characters With Case, section Documentation of Implementation-Defined Scripts
If the corresponding-char is different than character, then both the character and the corresponding-char have case.
Since char-equal ignores the case of the characters it compares, the corresponding-character is always the same as character under char-equal.
upper-case-p character => generalized-boolean
lower-case-p character => generalized-boolean
both-case-p character => generalized-boolean
character---a character.
generalized-boolean---a generalized boolean.
These functions test the case of a given character.
upper-case-p returns true if character is an uppercase character; otherwise, returns false.
lower-case-p returns true if character is a lowercase character; otherwise, returns false.
both-case-p returns true if character is a character with case; otherwise, returns false.
(upper-case-p #\A) => true (upper-case-p #\a) => false (both-case-p #\a) => true (both-case-p #\5) => false (lower-case-p #\5) => false (upper-case-p #\5) => false ;; This next example presupposes an implementation ;; in which #\Bell is an implementation-defined character. (lower-case-p #\Bell) => false
Should signal an error of type type-error if character is not a character.
@xref{char-upcase; char-downcase} , char-downcase, section Characters With Case, section Documentation of Implementation-Defined Scripts
char-code character => code
character---a character.
code---a character code.
char-code returns the code attribute of character.
;; An implementation using ASCII character encoding ;; might return these values: (char-code #\$) => 36 (char-code #\a) => 97
Should signal an error of type type-error if character is not a character.
section char-code-limit [Constant Variable]
char-int character => integer
character---a character.
integer---a non-negative integer.
Returns a non-negative integer encoding the character object. The manner in which the integer is computed is implementation-dependent. In contrast to sxhash, the result is not guaranteed to be independent of the particular Lisp image.
If character has no implementation-defined attributes, the results of char-int and char-code are the same.
(char= c1 c2) == (= (char-int c1) (char-int c2))
for characters c1 and c2.
(char-int #\A) => 65 ; implementation A (char-int #\A) => 577 ; implementation B (char-int #\A) => 262145 ; implementation C
section char-code [Function]
code-char code => char-p
code---a character code.
char-p---a character or nil.
Returns a character with the code attribute given by code. If no such character exists and one cannot be created, nil is returned.
(code-char 65.) => #\A ;in an implementation using ASCII codes (code-char (char-code #\Space)) => #\Space ;in any implementation
The implementation's character encoding.
section char-code [Function]
A non-negative integer, the exact magnitude of which is implementation-dependent, but which is not less than 96 (the number of standard characters).
The upper exclusive bound on the value returned by the function char-code.
section char-code [Function]
The value of char-code-limit might be larger than the actual number of characters supported by the implementation.
char-name character => name
character---a character.
name---a string or nil.
Returns a string that is the name of the character, or nil if the character has no name.
All non-graphic characters are required to have names unless they have some implementation-defined attribute which is not null. Whether or not other characters have names is implementation-dependent.
The standard characters <Newline> and <Space> have the respective names "Newline" and "Space". The semi-standard characters <Tab>, <Page>, <Rubout>, <Linefeed>, <Return>, and <Backspace> (if they are supported by the implementation) have the respective names "Tab", "Page", "Rubout", "Linefeed", "Return", and "Backspace" (in the indicated case, even though name lookup by "#\" and by the function name-char is not case sensitive).
(char-name #\ ) => "Space" (char-name #\Space) => "Space" (char-name #\Page) => "Page" (char-name #\a) => NIL OR=> "LOWERCASE-a" OR=> "Small-A" OR=> "LA01" (char-name #\A) => NIL OR=> "UPPERCASE-A" OR=> "Capital-A" OR=> "LA02" ;; Even though its CHAR-NAME can vary, #\A prints as #\A (prin1-to-string (read-from-string (format nil "#\\~A" (or (char-name #\A) "A")))) => "#\\A"
Should signal an error of type type-error if character is not a character.
section name-char [Function] , section Printing Characters
Non-graphic characters having names are written by the Lisp printer as "#\" followed by the their name; see section Printing Characters.
name-char name => char-p
name---a string designator.
char-p---a character or nil.
Returns the character object whose name is name (as determined by string-equal---i.e., lookup is not case sensitive). If such a character does not exist, nil is returned.
(name-char 'space) => #\Space (name-char "space") => #\Space (name-char "Space") => #\Space (let ((x (char-name #\a))) (or (not x) (eql (name-char x) #\a))) => true
Should signal an error of type type-error if name is not a string designator.
section char-name [Function]
Go to the first, previous, next, last section, table of contents.