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7.4 nth

The nthcdr function takes the cdr of a list repeatedly. The nth function takes the car of the result returned by nthcdr. It returns the Nth element of the list.

Thus, if it were not defined in C for speed, the definition of nth would be:

     (defun nth (n list)
       "Returns the Nth element of LIST.
     N counts from zero.  If LIST is not that long, nil is returned."
       (car (nthcdr n list)))

(Originally, nth was defined in Emacs Lisp in subr.el, but its definition was redone in C in the 1980s.)

The nth function returns a single element of a list. This can be very convenient.

Note that the elements are numbered from zero, not one. That is to say, the first element of a list, its car is the zeroth element. This is called `zero-based' counting and often bothers people who are accustomed to the first element in a list being number one, which is `one-based'.

For example:

     (nth 0 '("one" "two" "three"))
         ⇒ "one"
     (nth 1 '("one" "two" "three"))
         ⇒ "two"

It is worth mentioning that nth, like nthcdr and cdr, does not change the original list—the function is non-destructive. This is in sharp contrast to the setcar and setcdr functions.