Setq doesn't work

Question

Glad that the title got your attention :D

I have this little snippet that's driving me crazy:

(defvar cache '(nil . nil))

(defun init-cache ()
  (setq cache '(nil . nil)))

(defun save (value) 
  (nconc cache (list value)))

It's the minimum reproducible example out of a cache I'm trying to implement. I would expect the save to add elements to the list, and the init-cache to reset the cache.

Instead:

(init-cache)  ; cache is (nil)
(save "foo")  ; cache is (nil "foo"). So far, so good
(init-cache)  ; cache should be (nil), and it's all downward from here…
(save "bar")  ; (nil "foo" "bar") damn you, "foo"! Why are you here? Why are you doing this to me?!?!

So from my un-educated point of view, it looks like setq isn't working! I'm just changing the cdr of cache with nconc, why can't I change the cache symbol's value???

So my questions are:

• what's happening?
• the code looks awkward as hell: is there a more idiomatic way (one that works, if possible =) )

Thank you!

Answer 1

When writing list or cons constants in source code there is actually a subtle difference between e. g. (cons 'first 'second) and '(first . second). The latter denotes a constant cons cell in your code, the former creates a new cons cell each time the function is called.

What happens in init-cache is that the global variable cache is set to point to the same cons cell again and again that it was already referencing after the first call. What you want instead is that it creates a new cons cell on each call:

(defun init-cache ()
  (setq cache (cons nil nil)))

For the sake of completeness I might also mention that (defun init-cache () (setcdr cache nil)) would also "reset the cache". The variable cache would still point to the same cons cell, but init-cache would set its cdr to nil.

However, it is generally good practice to avoid messing with 'destructive' functions altogether, unless there is a very strong and compelling reason for it, like handling large data in a performance critical loop. As a default, I would always choose non-desctructive handling of lists as this here is exactly the kind of thing that might bite you. I would even ditch nconc in favour of (setq <variable> (append ...)) just on general principles. (See DoMiNeLa10's comment below for an typical exception.)

A more idiomatic way

I'm assuming that there is no particular reason to initialize cache as '(nil . nil), since you didn't mention one. So I'd write the above like this:

(defvar cache nil)

(defun init-cache ()
  (setq cache nil))

;; Alternative 1: If there is no particular reason to have newer elements
;; at the end of the list, the most idiomatic way is to prepend them. (And
;; possibly reverse the list locally, if needed.)

(defun save (value)
  ;; Or: (push value cache)
  (setq cache
        (cons value cache)))


;; Alternative 2: If there _is_ a reason to have newer elements at the end,
;; I'd use `append`.

    (defun save (value)
      (setq cache
            (append cache
                    (list value))))