LISP

A brief overview
• Lisp stands for “LISt Process”
– Invented by John McCarthy (1958)
– Simple data structure (atoms and lists)
– Heavy use of recursion
– Prefix notation of expressions
– Interpretive language
• Why Lisp
– It is the most widely used AI programming language
– It is good for writing production software
– It is especially good for prototyping
– It is got lots of features other languages don’t
– You can write new programs and extend old programs
really, really quickly in Lisp
• Variations
– Frantz Lisp (80’s)
– Common Lisp (de facto industrial standard)
• Common Lisp at UMBC (from CMU)
– At both gl.umbc.edu and cs.umbc.edu
– command line: clisp
– Related links
– Lisp online:
– http://www.csee.umbc.edu/331/resources/lisp/onLisp/
– http://www.delorie.com/gnu/docs/emacs/cl_toc.html#SEC_Contents
– Lisp tutorial
1. Valid objects (S-expressions)
Atoms:
numbers: (real 1.0, integer 1)
symbols: a consecutive sequence of characters (no space)
e.g., a, x, price-of-beef.
two special symbols: T and NIL for logical true and false.
strings: a sequence of characters bounded by double quotes
e.g., "this is red".
(Note: LISP is case insensitive)
Lists: a list of atoms and/or lists, bounded by "(" and ")"
(a b c), (a (b c))
top elements of a list
example: top elements of list (a b c) are a, b, and c
top elements of list (a (b c)) are a and (b c)
nil: empty list (same as ()).
2. Function calls
• also a list
• use prefix notation: (function-name arg1 ... argn)
• returns function value for the given list of arguments
• functions are either provided by Lisp function library or
defined by the user.
• Examples:
>(+ 1 3 5)
9
>(/ 3 5)
3/5
>(/ 3.0 5)
0.59999999999999998
>(sqrt 4)
2
3. Evaluation of S-expression
1) Evaluate an atom.
numerical and string atoms are evaluated to themselves;
symbols evaluate to their values if they are assigned values,
return Error, otherwise;
The values of T and NIL are themselves.
2) Evaluate a list - evaluate every top element of the list as follows,
unless explicitly forbidden:
• the first element is always a function name;
evaluating it means to call the function body;
• each of the rest elements will then be evaluated, and their values
returned as the arguments for the function.
• Examples
>(+ (/ 3 5) 4) >(+ (sqrt 4) 4.0) >(sqrt x)
23/5 6.0 Error: variable X has
no value
3) To assign a value to a symbol (setq, set)
>(setq x 3.0) >x
3.0 3.0
• setq is a special form of function (with two arguments);
• the first argument is a symbol which will NOT be evaluated;
• the second argument is a S-expression, which will be evaluated;
• the value of the second argument is assigned to be the value of
the first argument

>(setq y x) >y >(+ x y)

3.0 3.0 6.0
; the value of x is assigned as
; the value of y

• to forbid evaluation of a symbol (quote or ‘)

 >(quote x) >'x >(setq z 'x)
x x x

>(+ x z)
Error: X is not of a NUMBER ...

•. to force an evaluation, using function "eval"

>(+ x (eval z))
6.0
Two more assignment functions:
(set x y) ; assign the value of y to the value of x. x is evaluated
; first and whose value must be a symbol
; "setq" is a combination of "set" and "quote"
(setf x y) ; similar to but more general than "setq" in that x can be
; something other than a symbol.
4. Basic LISP functions
1) list operations:
• car and cdr
>(setq L '(a b c)) >(car L) >(cdr L)
(a b c) A (B C)
; assigns a list ; returns the first ; returns the
(a b c) as the top level element rest of list L
value of L of list L

>(cddr L) >(caddr L)
>(cadr L) (C) C
B
; car of cdr of L >(cdddr L) >(cadddr L)
NIL NIL

• (nth i L) returns the ith top element of L >(nth 2 L)

(the front element is considered 0th element)
C
• other list operations
>(cons 'x L) ; insert symbol x at the front of list L
(X A B C)
>(list 'a 'b 'c) ; making a list with the arguments as its elements
(A B C) ; if a, b, c have values x, y, z, then (list a b c)
; returns list (x y z)
>(append '(a b) '(c d))
(A B C D) ; appends one list in front of another
>(reverse L) ; reverses a list
(C B A)
>(length L) ; returns the length of list L
3
2) Predicates (a special function which returns NIL if the predicate
is false, T or anything other than NIL, otherwise)
=, >, <, >=, <= for numerical values;
equal, eq for others (symbols, lists, etc.)
>(< x y) >(= x y) >(equal ‘x ‘y) >(equal ‘a (car L))
NIL T NIL T

tests if x is a atom
>(atom x) >(atom L)
T NIL

tests if x is a list >(listp x) >(listp L)

NIL T
nil is both atom and list
 also numberp, symbolp, null

>(numberp ‘x) >(numberp x) >(symbolp ‘x) >(symbolp x)

NIL T T NIL

>(null L) >(null NIL) >(null x)

NIL T NIL
3) Set operations (a list can be viewed as a set whose members
are the top elements of the list)
>(member 'b L) ; test if symbol b is a member (a top element) of L
(B C) ; if yes, returns the sublist of L starting at the
; first occurrence of symbol b
>(member ‘b (cons 'b L))
(B A B C)
>(member x L)
NIL ; if no, returns NIL

>(union L1 L2) ; returns the union of the two lists

>(intersection L1 L2) ; returns the intersection of the two lists
>(set-difference L1 L2) ; returns the difference of the two lists
4) Conditional
>(cond (<test-1> <action-1>)
.
.
.
(<test-k> <action-k>))

• each pair (<test-i> <action-i>) is called a clause;

• if test-i (start with i=1) returns T (or anything other than NIL),
this function returns the value of action-i;
else, go to the next clause;
• usually, the last test is T, which always holds, meaning
otherwise.
• cond can be nested (action-i may contain (cond ...))
5. Define functions
•heavy use of recursive definitions

(defun func-name (arg-1 ... Arg-n) func-body)

examples: set membership function
recursive definition: x  L iff x = (car L)  x  (cdr L)
(defun member (x L)
(cond ((null L) nil) ; base case 1: L is empty
((equal x (car L)) L) ; base case 2: x=first(L)
(t (member x (cdr L))) ; recursion: test if x is in rest(L)
))
 (defun intersection (L1 L2)
(cond ((null L1) nil)
((null L2) nil)
((member (car L1) L2)
(cons (car L1) (intersection (cdr L1) L2)))
(t (intersection (cdr L1) L2))
))
Example: (intersection '(a b c) '(b a b c)) returns (a b c)
(intersection '(b a b c) '(a b c)) returns (b a b c)

(defun set-difference (L1 L2)

(cond ((null L1) nil)
((null L2) L1)
((not (member (car L1) L2))
(cons (car L1) (set-difference (cdr L1) L2)))
(t (set-difference (cdr L1) L2))
))
Define functions iteratively.
(dolist (x L result) body)
• for each top level element x in L, do body(x);
• x is not equal to an element of L in each iteration, but rather x
takes an element of L as its value;
(dotimes (count n result) body)
; do body n times. count starts with 0, ends with n-1

Note: result is optional, to be used to hold the computing result.

If result is given, the function will return the value of result,
returns NIL, otherwise. (may change global variables as side effects.)
 (defun sum2 (L)
(setq y 0)
(defun sum1 (L) (dotimes
(setq y 0) (count (length L) y)
(dolist (x L y) (setq y (+ y (nth count L)))
(setq y (+ y x)))) ))

>(setq L1 '(1 2 3))

(1 2 3)

>(sum1 L1)
6

>(sum2 L1)
6
6. Other functions in LISP library
1) Predicates:zerop, plusp, evenp, oddp, integerp, floatp
2) Logical connector: and, or, not
5) Rounding: floor,ceiling, truncate, round
6) Others: max, min, abs, sqrt, 1+ (add 1), 1- (minus 1)
(exp number) (base-e exponential)
(expt Base-number Power-Number)
(log number & Optional base-number)
(isqrt number) Returns the greater integer less than equal to the
exact positive square-root of the number.
(signum number) Returns -1, zero, or 1 according if the number
is negative, zero, or positive.
7. Other features
1) Property lists:
Assigning/accessing properties (attribute-value pairs) of a symbol
To assign a property: (setf (get object attribute) value)
To obtain a property: (get object attribute)

Example:
>(setq L2 ‘(a b c))

>(setf (get 'a 'height) 8) ; cannot use "setq" or "set" here

8
>(get 'a 'height)
8
>(setf (get (cadr L2) 'height) 9)
9
>(get 'b 'height)
9
2) Associative list: attach a list of properties to a symbol,
each property can be retrieved by key (property symbol)

>(setf sarah '((height 6) (weight 100) (sex "F")))

((HEIGHT 6) (WEIGHT 100) (SEX "F"))
>(assoc 'weight sarah)
(WEIGHT 100)
3) mapcar: (mapcar #'p-name L)
transform list L to another list by performing procedure p-name to
each top level element of L.
>(mapcar #'sqrt L1)
(1 1.4142135 1.7320508) transforming more
than one lists
(defun sq1 (x) (* x x))
define the function within
mapcar (unnamed),
>(mapcar #'sq1 L1) use lambda notation
(1 4 9)

>(mapcar #'set L2 L1)

(1 2 3) >(mapcar #'(lambda (x)
>a (set x (+ 1 (eval x)))) L2)
1 (2 3 4)
>(mapcar #'* L1 L1 L1) >a
(1 8 27) 2
4) input/output: print/read
on screen:
>(print (get 'a 'height)) >(setq p (read))
8 10 ;typed on the screen
8 10
>(print L2) >p
(A B C) 10
(A B C)

with external file:

(with-open-file (<stream-name> <file-name> :direction :input or :output)
... )

internal variable name

external file name
>(with-open-file (data "in.dat" :direction :input) ; input file “in.dat” contains
(setq L3 nil) ;12345
(dotimes (count 5) (setq L3 (cons (read data) L3)))
)
NIL
>L3
(5 4 3 2 1)

>(with-open-file (result "out.dat" :direction :output)

(dotimes (count 5) (print (+ 1 (nth count L3)) result)))
NIL

;an external file "out.dat" is created and contains

6
5
4
3
2
5) Some new primitive/functions
Access a list
first, second, ..., tenth ;extension of CAR,
;return the ith element
rest, last ; extension of CDR, return a list

Conditional
(if <test> body1 body2) ;do body1 if test is true,
; body2, otherwise
(when <test> body) ;do body when test is true
(unless <test> body) ;do body when test is false
6) Miscellaneous
%clisp ; enter Common Lisp of CMU (on gl.umbc.edu)
or cs.umbc.edu)
>(bye) or (quit)
or <ctrl>-D ; exit CLISP
(load "file-name") ; load in a file
(ed "file-name") ; enter vi editor
(compile-file "file-name") ; the compiled version is in file-name.o
; then load in file-name.o
(compile 'func-name) ; compile a particular function
(time (func-name arg1 ... argn))
; print real and run time for executing func-name
 Summary
• Atoms and lists
• Functions and function calls
setq, setf, set, quote, eval,
math functions (+, -, *, /, max, min, exp, sqrt, …)
list operations: list, cons, car, cdr, length, nth, append, reverse
predicates (=, >, equal, eq, numberp, symbolp, …)
• Defining functions
(defun func_name (arg_list) func_body)
dolist, dotimes, cond, if, when, unless, mapcar
• Properties and associative lists: get, assoc
• Input/output: print, read, with-open-file, load