Apropos

find-symbolFunction

    Syntax

    find-symbol string &optional package symbol, status

    Arguments and Values

    string — a string.

    package — a package designator. The default is the current package.

    symbol — a symbol accessible in the package, or nil.

    status — one of :inherited, :external, :internal, or nil.

    Description

    find-symbol locates a symbol whose name is string in a package. If a symbol named string is found in package, directly or by inheritance, the symbol found is returned as the first value; the second value is as follows:

    :internal

    If the symbol is present in package as an internal symbol.

    :external

    If the symbol is present in package as an external symbol.

    :inherited

    If the symbol is inherited by package through use-package, but is not present in package.

    If no such symbol is accessible in package, both values are nil.

    Examples
     (find-symbol "NEVER-BEFORE-USED")  NIL, NIL 
     (find-symbol "NEVER-BEFORE-USED")  NIL, NIL 
     (intern "NEVER-BEFORE-USED")  NEVER-BEFORE-USED, NIL 
     (intern "NEVER-BEFORE-USED")  NEVER-BEFORE-USED, :INTERNAL 
     (find-symbol "NEVER-BEFORE-USED")  NEVER-BEFORE-USED, :INTERNAL 
     (find-symbol "never-before-used")  NIL, NIL 
     (find-symbol "CAR" 'common-lisp-user)  CAR, :INHERITED 
     (find-symbol "CAR" 'common-lisp)  CAR, :EXTERNAL 
     (find-symbol "NIL" 'common-lisp-user)  NIL, :INHERITED 
     (find-symbol "NIL" 'common-lisp)  NIL, :EXTERNAL 
     (find-symbol "NIL" (prog1 (make-package "JUST-TESTING" :use '()) 
                               (intern "NIL" "JUST-TESTING"))) 
     JUST-TESTING::NIL, :INTERNAL 
     (export 'just-testing::nil 'just-testing) 
     (find-symbol "NIL" 'just-testing)  JUST-TESTING:NIL, :EXTERNAL 
     (find-symbol "NIL" "KEYWORD") 
     NIL, NIL 
    or  :NIL, :EXTERNAL 
     (find-symbol (symbol-name :nil) "KEYWORD")  :NIL, :EXTERNAL
    Affected By

    intern, import, export, use-package, unintern, unexport, unuse-package

    See Also

    intern, find-all-symbols

    Notes

    find-symbol is operationally equivalent to intern, except that it never creates a new symbol.