When an object O is being considered iteratively against each element E_i of a sequence S by an operator F listed in Figure 17--2, it is sometimes useful to control the way in which the presence of O is tested in S is tested by F. This control is offered on the basis of a function designated with either a :test or :test-not argument.
adjoin nset-exclusive-or search assoc nsublis set-difference count nsubst set-exclusive-or delete nsubstitute sublis find nunion subsetp intersection position subst member pushnew substitute mismatch rassoc tree-equal nintersection remove union nset-difference remove-duplicates
Figure 17--2: Operators that have Two-Argument Tests to be Satisfied
The object O might not be compared directly to E_i. If a :key argument is provided, it is a designator for a function of one argument to be called with each E_i as an argument, and yielding an object Z_i to be used for comparison. (If there is no :key argument, Z_i is E_i.)
The function designated by the :key argument is never called on O itself. However, if the function operates on multiple sequences (e.g., as happens in set-difference), O will be the result of calling the :key function on an element of the other sequence.
A :test argument, if supplied to F, is a designator for a function of two arguments, O and Z_i. An E_i is said (or, sometimes, an O and an E_i are said) to satisfy the test
if this :test function returns a generalized boolean representing true.
A :test-not argument, if supplied to F, is designator for a function of two arguments, O and Z_i. An E_i is said (or, sometimes, an O and an E_i are said) to satisfy the test
if this :test-not function returns a generalized boolean representing false.
If neither a :test nor a :test-not argument is supplied, it is as if a :test argument of #'eql was supplied.
The consequences are unspecified if both a :test and a :test-not argument are supplied in the same call to F.
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