2.7 Equality Predicates

Here we describe two functions that test for equality between any two objects. Other functions test equality between objects of specific types, e.g., strings. For these predicates, see the appropriate chapter describing the data type.

Function: eq object1 object2

This function returns t if object1 and object2 are the same object, nil otherwise. The "same object" means that a change in one will be reflected by the same change in the other.

eq returns t if object1 and object2 are integers with the same value. Also, since symbol names are normally unique, if the arguments are symbols with the same name, they are eq. For other types (e.g., lists, vectors, strings), two arguments with the same contents or elements are not necessarily eq to each other: they are eq only if they are the same object.

(eq 'foo 'foo) => t (eq 456 456) => t (eq "asdf" "asdf") => nil (eq '(1 (2 (3))) '(1 (2 (3)))) => nil (setq foo '(1 (2 (3)))) => (1 (2 (3))) (eq foo foo) => t (eq foo '(1 (2 (3)))) => nil (eq [(1 2) 3] [(1 2) 3]) => nil (eq (point-marker) (point-marker)) => nil

The make-symbol function returns an uninterned symbol, distinct from the symbol that is used if you write the name in a Lisp expression. Distinct symbols with the same name are not eq. See section 8.3 Creating and Interning Symbols.

(eq (make-symbol "foo") 'foo) => nil

Function: equal object1 object2

This function returns t if object1 and object2 have equal components, nil otherwise. Whereas eq tests if its arguments are the same object, equal looks inside nonidentical arguments to see if their elements or contents are the same. So, if two objects are eq, they are equal, but the converse is not always true.

(equal 'foo 'foo) => t (equal 456 456) => t (equal "asdf" "asdf") => t (eq "asdf" "asdf") => nil (equal '(1 (2 (3))) '(1 (2 (3)))) => t (eq '(1 (2 (3))) '(1 (2 (3)))) => nil (equal [(1 2) 3] [(1 2) 3]) => t (eq [(1 2) 3] [(1 2) 3]) => nil (equal (point-marker) (point-marker)) => t (eq (point-marker) (point-marker)) => nil

Comparison of strings is case-sensitive, but does not take account of text properties--it compares only the characters in the strings. A unibyte string never equals a multibyte string unless the contents are entirely ASCII (see section 33.1 Text Representations).

(equal "asdf" "ASDF") => nil

However, two distinct buffers are never considered equal, even if their textual contents are the same.

The test for equality is implemented recursively; for example, given two cons cells x and y, (equal x y) returns t if and only if both the expressions below return t:

(equal (car x) (car y)) (equal (cdr x) (cdr y))

Because of this recursive method, circular lists may therefore cause infinite recursion (leading to an error).