3.1 Type Predicates

Function: cl-typep object type

Check if object is of type type, where type is a (quoted) type name of the sort used by Common Lisp. For example, (cl-typep foo 'integer) is equivalent to (integerp foo).

The type argument to the above function is either a symbol or a list beginning with a symbol.

• If the type name is a symbol, Emacs appends ‘-p’ to the symbol name to form the name of a predicate function for testing the type. (Built-in predicates whose names end in ‘p’ rather than ‘-p’ are used when appropriate.)
• The type symbol t stands for the union of all types. (cl-typep object t) is always true. Likewise, the type symbol nil stands for nothing at all, and (cl-typep object nil) is always false.
• The type symbol null represents the symbol nil. Thus (cl-typep object 'null) is equivalent to (null object).
• The type symbol atom represents all objects that are not cons cells. Thus (cl-typep object 'atom) is equivalent to (atom object).
• The type symbol real is a synonym for number, and fixnum is a synonym for integer.
• The type symbols character and string-char match integers in the range from 0 to 255.
• The type list (integer low high) represents all integers between low and high, inclusive. Either bound may be a list of a single integer to specify an exclusive limit, or a * to specify no limit. The type (integer * *) is thus equivalent to integer.
• Likewise, lists beginning with float, real, or number represent numbers of that type falling in a particular range.
• Lists beginning with and, or, and not form combinations of types. For example, (or integer (float 0 *)) represents all objects that are integers or non-negative floats.
• Lists beginning with member or cl-member represent objects eql to any of the following values. For example, (member 1 2 3 4) is equivalent to (integer 1 4), and (member nil) is equivalent to null.
• Lists of the form (satisfies predicate) represent all objects for which predicate returns true when called with that object as an argument.

The following function and macro (not technically predicates) are related to cl-typep.

Function: cl-coerce object type

This function attempts to convert object to the specified type. If object is already of that type as determined by cl-typep, it is simply returned. Otherwise, certain types of conversions will be made: If type is any sequence type (string, list, etc.) then object will be converted to that type if possible. If type is character, then strings of length one and symbols with one-character names can be coerced. If type is float, then integers can be coerced in versions of Emacs that support floats. In all other circumstances, cl-coerce signals an error.

Macro: cl-deftype name arglist forms…

This macro defines a new type called name. It is similar to defmacro in many ways; when name is encountered as a type name, the body forms are evaluated and should return a type specifier that is equivalent to the type. The arglist is a Common Lisp argument list of the sort accepted by cl-defmacro. The type specifier ‘(name args…)’ is expanded by calling the expander with those arguments; the type symbol ‘name’ is expanded by calling the expander with no arguments. The arglist is processed the same as for cl-defmacro except that optional arguments without explicit defaults use * instead of nil as the “default” default. Some examples:

(cl-deftype null () '(satisfies null))    ; predefined
(cl-deftype list () '(or null cons))      ; predefined
(cl-deftype unsigned-byte (&optional bits)
  (list 'integer 0 (if (eq bits '*) bits (1- (lsh 1 bits)))))
(unsigned-byte 8)  ≡  (integer 0 255)
(unsigned-byte)  ≡  (integer 0 *)
unsigned-byte  ≡  (integer 0 *)

The last example shows how the Common Lisp unsigned-byte type specifier could be implemented if desired; this package does not implement unsigned-byte by default.

The cl-typecase (see Conditionals) and cl-check-type (see Assertions) macros also use type names. The cl-map, cl-concatenate, and cl-merge functions take type-name arguments to specify the type of sequence to return. See Sequences.