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An association list or alist is a specially-constructed list whose elements are cons cells. In each element, the CAR is considered a key, and the CDR is considered an associated value. (In some cases, the associated value is stored in the CAR of the CDR.) Association lists are often used as stacks, since it is easy to add or remove associations at the front of the list.
For example,
(setq alist-of-colors '((rose . red) (lily . white) (buttercup . yellow)))
sets the variable alist-of-colors
to an alist of three elements. In the
first element, rose
is the key and red
is the value.
See Association Lists, for a further explanation of alists and for functions that work on alists.