Convert Symbol to a String in Elisp

Question

How can I convert a symbol type into a string in Emacs lisp?

I wasn't able to find a symbol-to-string function or anything similar.

score 109 · Accepted Answer · edited May 18 '14 at 13:30

109

Try using symbol-name:

(symbol-name 'some-symbol)

edited May 18 '14 at 13:30

giordano

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answered Jan 10 '11 at 20:46

Trey Jackson

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And for the reverse, `(intern "some-string")`. – Ryan C. Thompson Jan 11 '11 at 01:17

score 5 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 12 '17 at 15:47

Given a symbol name (a string), you can get the symbol's value. Using Trey Jackson's solution:

(setq ASymbol 10)  => 10
(intern "ASymbol")  => 'ASymbol (e.g. the unevaluated symbol with name "ASymbol")
(symbol-value (intern "ASymbol")) => 10

This is useful if you want to get the values of symbols for which you only have names. For instance, you read them from a string.

A few notes: intern returns the value of the symbol with the given name. If no symbol with such a name exists, it creates a symbol with that name. You can use intern-soft to avoid introducing a new symbol if one with the given name does not exists.

Convert Symbol to a String in Elisp

2 Answers2