gensym

Type:	-	function (subr)
Source:	-	xlbfun.c

Syntax

(gensym [tag])

tag - an optional integer or string
returns - the new symbol

Description

The 'gensym' function generates and returns a symbol. The default symbol form is as a character 'G' followed by a number, 'Gn'. The default numbering starts at '1'. You can change what the generated symbol looks like. By calling 'gensym' with a string 'tag', the default string is set to the string parameter. If 'tag' is an integer number, the current number is set to the integer parameter.

Examples

(gensym)             ; first time => G1
(gensym 100)         ; returns G100
(gensym "MYGENSYM")  ; returns MYGENSYM101
(gensym 0)           ; returns MYGENSYM0
(gensym)             ; returns MYGENSYM1
(gensym "G")         ; \
(gensym 0)           ; /  put it back to 'normal'
(gensym)             ; just like first time => G1

Note: It takes 2 calls to 'gensym' to set both portions of the 'gensym' symbol.

Note: Although it is possible to call 'gensym' with numbers in the string like "AB1", this does generate an odd sequence. What will happen is you will get a sequence of symbols like:

... AB18 AB19 AB110 AB111 ...

See the gensym function in the XLISP 2.0 manual.

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