(guile.info.gz) Association Lists

(guile.info.gz) Association Lists and Hash Tables

 
 22.7.2 Association Lists
 ------------------------
 
 An association list is a conventional data structure that is often used
 to implement simple key-value databases.  It consists of a list of
 entries in which each entry is a pair.  The "key" of each entry is the
 `car' of the pair and the "value" of each entry is the `cdr'.
 
      ASSOCIATION LIST ::=  '( (KEY1 . VALUE1)
                               (KEY2 . VALUE2)
                               (KEY3 . VALUE3)
                               ...
                             )
 
 Association lists are also known, for short, as "alists".
 
    The structure of an association list is just one example of the
 infinite number of possible structures that can be built using pairs
 and lists.  As such, the keys and values in an association list can be
 manipulated using the general list structure procedures `cons', `car',
 `cdr', `set-car!', `set-cdr!' and so on.  However, because association
 lists are so useful, Guile also provides specific procedures for
 manipulating them.

(guile.info.gz) Association Lists

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