4.5 Definitions: define

A basic definition has the form

(define id expr)

in which case id is bound to the result of expr.

Examples:

(define salutation (list-ref '("Hi" "Hello") (random 2))) > salutation "Hi"

4.5.1 Function Shorthand

The define form also supports a shorthand for function definitions:

(define (id arg ...) body ...+)

which is a shorthand for

(define id (lambda (arg ...) body ...+))

Examples:

(define (greet name)   (string-append salutation ", " name)) > (greet "John") "Hi, John"

(define (greet first [surname "Smith"] #:hi [hi salutation])   (string-append hi ", " first " " surname))

> (greet "John") "Hi, John Smith" > (greet "John" #:hi "Hey") "Hey, John Smith" > (greet "John" "Doe") "Hi, John Doe"

The function shorthand via define also supports a “rest” argument (i.e., a final argument to collect extra arguments in a list):

(define (id arg ... . rest-id) body ...+)

which is a shorthand

(define id (lambda (arg ... . rest-id) body ...+))

Examples:

(define (avg . l)   (/ (apply + l) (length l))) > (avg 1 2 3) 2

4.5.2 Curried Function Shorthand

Consider the following make-add-suffix function that takes a string and returns another function that takes a string:

(define make-add-suffix   (lambda (s2)     (lambda (s) (string-append s s2))))

Although it’s not common, result of make-add-suffix could be called directly, like this:

> ((make-add-suffix "!") "hello")

"hello!"

In a sense, make-add-suffix is a function takes two arguments, but it takes them one at a time. A function that takes some of its arguments and returns a function to consume more is sometimes called a curried function.

Using the function-shorthand form of define, make-add-suffix can be written equivalently as

(define (make-add-suffix s2)

(lambda (s) (string-append s s2)))

This shorthand reflects the shape of the function call (make-add-suffix "!"). The define form further supports a shorthand for defining curried functions that reflects nested function calls:

The full syntax of the function shorthand for define is as follows:

(define (head args) body ...+)

head   =   id     |   (head args)           args   =   arg ...     |   arg ... . rest-id

The expansion of this shorthand has one nested lambda form for each head in the definition, where the innermost head corresponds to the outermost lambda.

4.5.3 Multiple Values and define-values

A Racket expression normally produces a single result, but some expressions can produce multiple results. For example, quotient and remainder each produce a single value, but quotient/remainder produces the same two values at once:

> (quotient 13 3)

4

> (remainder 13 3)

1

> (quotient/remainder 13 3)

4 1

As shown above, the REPL prints each result value on its own line.

Multiple-valued functions can be implemented in terms of the values function, which takes any number of values and returns them as the results:

The define-values form binds multiple identifiers at once to multiple results produced from a single expression:

(define-values (id ...) expr)

The number of results produced by the expr must match the number of ids.

Examples:

(define-values (given surname) (split-name "Adam Smith")) > given "Adam" > surname "Smith"

A define form (that is not a function shorthand) is equivalent to a define-values form with a single id.

Definitions: define, define-syntax, ... in The Racket Reference provides more on definitions.

4.5.4 Internal Definitions

When the grammar for a syntactic form specifies body, then the corresponding form can be either a definition or an expression. A definition as a body is an internal definition.

Expressions and internal definitions in a body sequence can be mixed, as long as the last body is an expression.

For example, the syntax of lambda is

(lambda gen-formals   body ...+)

so the following are valid instances of the grammar:

(lambda (f)                ; no definitions

(printf "running\n")

(f 0))

(lambda (f)                ; one definition

(define (log-it what)

(printf "~a\n" what))

(log-it "running")

(f 0)

(log-it "done"))

(lambda (f n)              ; two definitions

(define (call n)

(if (zero? n)

(log-it "done")

(begin

(log-it "running")

(f n)

(call (- n 1)))))

(define (log-it what)

(printf "~a\n" what))

(call n))

Internal definitions in a particular body sequence are mutually recursive; that is, any definition can refer to any other definition—as long as the reference isn’t actually evaluated before its definition takes place. If a definition is referenced too early, the result is a special value #<undefined>.

Examples:

(define (weird)   (define x x)   x) > (weird) #<undefined>

A sequence of internal definitions using just define is easily translated to an equivalent letrec form (as introduced in the next section). However, other definition forms can appear as a body, including define-values, struct (see Programmer-Defined Datatypes) or define-syntax (see Macros).

Internal Definitions in The Racket Reference documents the fine points of internal definitions.