- (lambda <formals> <body>)syntax
Syntax: <Formals> should be a formal arguments list as described below, and <body> should be a sequence of one or more expressions.
Semantics: A lambda expression evaluates to a procedure. The environment in effect when the lambda expression was evaluated is remembered as part of the procedure. When the procedure is later called with some actual arguments, the environment in which the lambda expression was evaluated will be extended by binding the variables in the formal argument list to fresh locations, the corresponding actual argument values will be stored in those locations, and the expressions in the body of the lambda expression will be evaluated sequentially in the extended environment. The result(s) of the last expression in the body will be returned as the result(s) of the procedure call.
(lambda (x) (+ x x)) ===> a procedure ((lambda (x) (+ x x)) 4) ===> 8 (define reverse-subtract (lambda (x y) (- y x))) (reverse-subtract 7 10) ===> 3 (define add4 (let ((x 4)) (lambda (y) (+ x y)))) (add4 6) ===> 10<Formals> should have one of the following forms:
- (<variable[1]> ...): The procedure takes a fixed number of arguments; when the procedure is called, the arguments will be stored in the bindings of the corresponding variables.
- <variable>: The procedure takes any number of arguments; when the procedure is called, the sequence of actual arguments is converted into a newly allocated list, and the list is stored in the binding of the <variable>.
- (<variable[1]> ... <variable[n]> . <variable[n+1]>): If a space-delimited period precedes the last variable, then the procedure takes n or more arguments, where n is the number of formal arguments before the period (there must be at least one). The value stored in the binding of the last variable will be a newly allocated list of the actual arguments left over after all the other actual arguments have been matched up against the other formal arguments.
It is an error for a <variable> to appear more than once in <formals>.
((lambda x x) 3 4 5 6) ===> (3 4 5 6) ((lambda (x y . z) z) 3 4 5 6) ===> (5 6)
Each procedure created as the result of evaluating a lambda expression is (conceptually) tagged with a storage location, in order to make eqv? and eq? work on procedures.
As an extension to R5RS, CHICKEN also supports "extended" DSSSL style parameter lists, which allows embedded special keywords. Such a keyword gives a special meaning to the <formal> it precedes. DSSSL parameter lists are defined by the following grammar:
<parameter-list> ==> <required-parameter>* [#!optional <optional-parameter>*] [#!rest <rest-parameter>] [#!key <keyword-parameter>*] <required-parameter> ==> <ident> <optional-parameter> ==> <ident> | (<ident> <initializer>) <rest-parameter> ==> <ident> <keyword-parameter> ==> <ident> | (<ident> <initializer>) <initializer> ==> <expr>When a procedure is applied to a list of arguments, the parameters and arguments are processed from left to right as follows:
- Required-parameters are bound to successive arguments starting with the first argument. It shall be an error if there are fewer arguments than required-parameters.
- Next, the optional-parameters are bound with the remaining arguments. If there are fewer arguments than optional-parameters, then the remaining optional-parameters are bound to the result of the evaluation of their corresponding <initializer>, if one was specified, otherwise #f. The corresponding <initializer> is evaluated in an environment in which all previous parameters have been bound.
- If there is a rest-parameter, then it is bound to a list containing all the remaining arguments left over after the argument bindings with required-parameters and optional-parameters have been made.
- If #!key was specified in the parameter-list, there should be an even number of remaining arguments. These are interpreted as a series of pairs, where the first member of each pair is a keyword specifying the parameter name, and the second member is the corresponding value. If the same keyword occurs more than once in the list of arguments, then the corresponding value of the first keyword is the binding value. If there is no argument for a particular keyword-parameter, then the variable is bound to the result of evaluating <initializer>, if one was specified, otherwise #f. The corresponding <initializer> is evaluated in an environment in which all previous parameters have been bound.
Needing a special mention is the close relationship between the rest-parameter and possible keyword-parameters. Declaring a rest-parameter binds up all remaining arguments in a list, as described above. These same remaining arguments are also used for attempted matches with declared keyword-parameters, as described above, in which case a matching keyword-parameter binds to the corresponding value argument at the same time that both the keyword and value arguments are added to the rest parameter list. Note that for efficiency reasons, the keyword-parameter matching does nothing more than simply attempt to match with pairs that may exist in the remaining arguments. Extra arguments that don't match are simply unused and forgotten if no rest-parameter has been declared. Because of this, the caller of a procedure containing one or more keyword-parameters cannot rely on any kind of system error to report wrong keywords being passed in.
It shall be an error for an <ident> to appear more than once in a parameter-list.
If there is no rest-parameter and no keyword-parameters in the parameter-list, then it shall be an error for any extra arguments to be passed to the procedure.
Example:
((lambda x x) 3 4 5 6) => (3 4 5 6) ((lambda (x y #!rest z) z) 3 4 5 6) => (5 6) ((lambda (x y #!optional z #!rest r #!key i (j 1)) (list x y z i: i j: j)) 3 4 5 i: 6 i: 7) => (3 4 5 i: 6 j: 1)