In Emacs Lisp, how do I check if a variable is defined?
4 Answers
146
votes
you may want boundp: returns t if variable (a symbol) is not void; more precisely, if its current binding is not void. It returns nil otherwise.
(boundp 'abracadabra) ; Starts out void.
=> nil
(let ((abracadabra 5)) ; Locally bind it.
(boundp 'abracadabra))
=> t
(boundp 'abracadabra) ; Still globally void.
=> nil
(setq abracadabra 5) ; Make it globally nonvoid.
=> 5
(boundp 'abracadabra)
=> t
48
votes
In addition to dfa's answer you may also want to see if it's bound as a function using fboundp:
(defun baz ()
)
=> baz
(boundp 'baz)
=> nil
(fboundp 'baz)
=> t
4
votes
If you want to check a variable value from within emacs (I don't know if this applies, since you wrote "in Emacs Lisp"?):
M-: starts Eval in the mini buffer. Write in the name of the variable and press return. The mini-buffer shows the value of the variable.
If the variable is not defined, you get a debugger error.
