Symbol's function definition is void on built-in variables?

Question

For some reason I am getting errors for built-in variables that are available in the documentation.

For instance, evaluating in the scratch buffer the following all return:

Symbol's function definition is void:

• emacs-major-version
• emacs-minor-version
• display-time-24hr-format

This is so weird because there is documentation for all of these, they show up in auto-complete and I see other users using them.

I can not use these in my .emacs or anywhere else. Interestingly however, I can set some of them using customize. For instance:

(display-time-24hr-format t) does work in the customize block

Does anyone have any advice?

Answer 1

You get Symbol's function definition is void because those are variables, not functions.

Below will work:

M-: emacs-major-version

Below will not work:

M-: (emacs-major-version)