Strings and Characters

A string in Emacs Lisp is an array that contains an ordered sequence of characters. Strings are used as names of symbols, buffers, and files; to send messages to users; to hold text being copied between buffers; and for many other purposes. Because strings are so important, Emacs Lisp has many functions expressly for manipulating them. Emacs Lisp programs use strings more often than individual characters.

See Putting Keyboard Events in Strings, for special considerations for strings of keyboard character events.

• String and Character Basics
• Predicates for Strings
• Creating Strings
• Modifying Strings
• Comparison of Characters and Strings
• Conversion of Characters and Strings
• Formatting Strings
• Custom Format Strings
• Case Conversion in Lisp
• The Case Table