I tried to use this code, but it returns (k k k k k)
(mapcar (lambda (x) 'cons x '(k))
'(a b c d e))
What am i doing wrong here? Why doesn't cons work?
1 Answer
Just syntax error. To create your alist, use to following:
(mapcar (lambda (x) (cons x 'k))
'(a b c d e))
(lambda (x) 'cons x '(k))is a function which returns'(k)(after a couple of pointless evaluations). That mapcar therefore should be returning((k) (k) (k) (k) (k))which is different to what you've said.'(k)in that context -- that's the exact same list being placed in each cell of that output. If you were tosetcarany one of those(k)instances to, say,j, then not only would the entire list become((j) (j) (j) (j) (j)), but the lambda function itself would now be returning that same'(j)as well (unless it was re-read). You frequently want(list 'k)rather than'(k).