Vectors¶

Vectors are much like lists in that they have values separated with spaces, but their values are accessed by an "index", which is the position of the value in the vector. Indexes are zero-based, so the first position is 0 and the second is 1, and so on. The advantage that vectors have over lists is the retrieval of the values is much faster.

Creating Vectors¶

Like lists, vectors can be created as a literal.

guile> #(1 "a")
#(1 "a")

Or they can be created with the procedure vector.

guile> (vector 1 "a")
#(1 "a")

Note that unlike lists, the literal form of vectors (with the #) will assume that symbols are quoted. So...

guile> #(a b)
#(a b)

But the procedure will not.

guile> (vector a b)
standard input:12:1: While evaluating arguments to vector in expression (vector a b):
standard input:12:1: Unbound variable: a
ABORT: (unbound-variable)

Accessing Vectors¶

Instead of using car and cdr as you do with lists, with vectors you use the procedure vector-ref and an index. (They start at zero.)

guile> (define v #(1 "a"))
guile> (vector-ref v 1)
"a"

Note that `vector-ref will try to evaluate any symbols in the vector, so...

guile> (define v #(a, b))
guile> v
#(a, b)
guile> (vectors-ref v 1)
standard input:14:1: In expression (vectors-ref v 1):
standard input:14:1: Unbound variable: vectors-ref
ABORT: (unbound-variable)