Equality Predicates

Function: eq arg1 arg2

Returns t when arg1 and arg2 are the same object. Two objects are the same object when they occupy the same place in memory and hence modifying one object would alter the other. The following Lisp fragments may illustrate this,

(eq "foo" "foo")	;the objects are distinct
    => nil

(eq t t)		;the same object -- the symbol t
    => t

Note that the result of eq is undefined when called on two integer objects with the same value, see eql.

Function: equal arg1 arg2

The function equal compares the structure of the two objects arg1 and arg2. If they are considered to be equivalent then t is returned, otherwise nil is returned.

(equal "foo" "foo")
    => t

(equal 42 42)
    => t

(equal 42 0)
    => nil

(equal '(x . y) '(x . y))
    => t

Function: eql arg1 arg2

This function is a cross between eq and equal: if arg1 and arg2 are both numbers then the value of these numbers are compared. Otherwise it behaves in exactly the same manner as eq does.

(eql 3 3)
    => t

(eql 1 2)
    => nil

(eql "foo" "foo")
    => nil

(eql 'x 'x)
    => t

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