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Function REMOVE, REMOVE-IF, REMOVE-IF-NOT, DELETE, DELETE-IF, DELETE-IF-NOT

Syntax:

remove item sequence &key from-end test test-not start end count key => result-sequence

remove-if test sequence &key from-end start end count key => result-sequence

remove-if-not test sequence &key from-end start end count key => result-sequence

delete item sequence &key from-end test test-not start end count key => result-sequence

delete-if test sequence &key from-end start end count key => result-sequence

delete-if-not test sequence &key from-end start end count key => result-sequence

Arguments and Values:

item---an object.

sequence---a proper sequence.

test---a designator for a function of one argument that returns a generalized boolean.

from-end---a generalized boolean. The default is false.

test---a designator for a function of two arguments that returns a generalized boolean.

test-not---a designator for a function of two arguments that returns a generalized boolean.

start, end---bounding index designators of sequence. The defaults for start and end are 0 and nil, respectively.

count---an integer or nil. The default is nil.

key---a designator for a function of one argument, or nil.

result-sequence---a sequence.

Description:

remove, remove-if, and remove-if-not return a sequence from which the elements that satisfy the test have been removed.

delete, delete-if, and delete-if-not are like remove, remove-if, and remove-if-not respectively, but they may modify sequence.

If sequence is a vector, the result is a vector that has the same actual array element type as sequence. If sequence is a list, the result is a list.

Supplying a from-end of true matters only when the count is provided; in that case only the rightmost count elements satisfying the test are deleted.

Count, if supplied, limits the number of elements removed or deleted; if more than count elements satisfy the test, then of these elements only the leftmost or rightmost, depending on from-end, are deleted or removed, as many as specified by count. If count is supplied and negative, the behavior is as if zero had been supplied instead. If count is nil, all matching items are affected.

For all these functions, elements not removed or deleted occur in the same order in the result as they did in sequence.

remove, remove-if, remove-if-not return a sequence of the same type as sequence that has the same elements except that those in the subsequence bounded by start and end and satisfying the test have been removed. This is a non-destructive operation. If any elements need to be removed, the result will be a copy. The result of remove may share with sequence; the result may be identical to the input sequence if no elements need to be removed.

delete, delete-if, and delete-if-not return a sequence of the same type as sequence that has the same elements except that those in the subsequence bounded by start and end and satisfying the test have been deleted. Sequence may be destroyed and used to construct the result; however, the result might or might not be identical to sequence.

delete, when sequence is a list, is permitted to setf any part, car or cdr, of the top-level list structure in that sequence. When sequence is a vector, delete is permitted to change the dimensions of the vector and to slide its elements into new positions without permuting them to produce the resulting vector.

delete-if is constrained to behave exactly as follows:

 (delete nil sequence
             :test #'(lambda (ignore item) (funcall test item))
             ...)

Examples:

 (remove 4 '(1 3 4 5 9)) =>  (1 3 5 9)
 (remove 4 '(1 2 4 1 3 4 5)) =>  (1 2 1 3 5)
 (remove 4 '(1 2 4 1 3 4 5) :count 1) =>  (1 2 1 3 4 5)
 (remove 4 '(1 2 4 1 3 4 5) :count 1 :from-end t) =>  (1 2 4 1 3 5)
 (remove 3 '(1 2 4 1 3 4 5) :test #'>) =>  (4 3 4 5)
 (setq lst '(list of four elements)) =>  (LIST OF FOUR ELEMENTS)
 (setq lst2 (copy-seq lst)) =>  (LIST OF FOUR ELEMENTS)
 (setq lst3 (delete 'four lst)) =>  (LIST OF ELEMENTS)
 (equal lst lst2) =>  false
 (remove-if #'oddp '(1 2 4 1 3 4 5)) =>  (2 4 4)
 (remove-if #'evenp '(1 2 4 1 3 4 5) :count 1 :from-end t) 
=>  (1 2 4 1 3 5)
 (remove-if-not #'evenp '(1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9) :count 2 :from-end t)
=>  (1 2 3 4 5 6 8)
 (setq tester (list 1 2 4 1 3 4 5)) =>  (1 2 4 1 3 4 5)
 (delete 4 tester) =>  (1 2 1 3 5)
 (setq tester (list 1 2 4 1 3 4 5)) =>  (1 2 4 1 3 4 5)
 (delete 4 tester :count 1) =>  (1 2 1 3 4 5)
 (setq tester (list 1 2 4 1 3 4 5)) =>  (1 2 4 1 3 4 5)
 (delete 4 tester :count 1 :from-end t) =>  (1 2 4 1 3 5)
 (setq tester (list 1 2 4 1 3 4 5)) =>  (1 2 4 1 3 4 5)
 (delete 3 tester :test #'>) =>  (4 3 4 5)
 (setq tester (list 1 2 4 1 3 4 5)) =>  (1 2 4 1 3 4 5)
 (delete-if #'oddp tester) =>  (2 4 4)
 (setq tester (list 1 2 4 1 3 4 5)) =>  (1 2 4 1 3 4 5)
 (delete-if #'evenp tester :count 1 :from-end t) =>  (1 2 4 1 3 5)    
 (setq tester (list 1 2 3 4 5 6)) =>  (1 2 3 4 5 6) 
 (delete-if #'evenp tester) =>  (1 3 5) 
 tester =>  implementation-dependent

 (setq foo (list 'a 'b 'c)) =>  (A B C)
 (setq bar (cdr foo)) =>  (B C)
 (setq foo (delete 'b foo)) =>  (A C)
 bar =>  ((C)) or ...
 (eq (cdr foo) (car bar)) =>  T or ...

Side Effects:

For delete, delete-if, and delete-if-not, sequence may be destroyed and used to construct the result.

Affected By: None.

Exceptional Situations:

Should be prepared to signal an error of type type-error if sequence is not a proper sequence.

See Also:

Section 3.2.1 (Compiler Terminology), Section 3.6 (Traversal Rules and Side Effects)

Notes:

If sequence is a vector, the result might or might not be simple, and might or might not be identical to sequence.

The :test-not argument is deprecated.

The functions delete-if-not and remove-if-not are deprecated.


The following X3J13 cleanup issues, not part of the specification, apply to this section:


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