Emacs Lisp: Join or Convert List, Vector, String

Here are functions to join sequences (list, vector, string) or convert them to any of list, vector, string.

Sequence to Vector

vconcat

(vconcat sequence1 sequence2 etc)

Join any Sequence Type and return a vector.

;; join vectors
(equal
 (vconcat [3 4] ["a" "b"])
 [3 4 "a" "b"])

;; join vector and list
(equal
 (vconcat [3 4] '("a" "b"))
 [3 4 "a" "b"]
 )

;; join vector and string
(equal
 (vconcat [3 4] "ab")
 [3 4 97 98])

;; string elements are converted to char.
;; 97 is the codepoint for the char a

Sequence to List

append

(append sequence1 sequence2 etc)

Join any Sequence Type and return a list.

Warning: if you want result to be Proper List , the last element must be a list, or nil.

join lists:

;; join lists
(equal
 (list 1 2 3 4)
 (append (list 1 2) (list 3 4)))

convert vector to list:

;; convert vector to list
(equal
 (append [1 2 3] nil)
 '(1 2 3))

;; this creates improper list
(equal
 (append [1 2 3] [4 5])
 '(1 2 3 . [4 5]))

;; proper list
(equal
 (append [1 2 3] [4 5] nil)
 '(1 2 3 4 5))

;; join vectors and lists to list
(equal
 (append [1 2 3] [4 5] '(6))
 '(1 2 3 4 5 6))
;; proper list

Sequence to String

To convert a list to string, use mapconcat or format. [see Emacs Lisp: Format String]

mapconcat

(mapconcat function sequence separator)

Apply function to each element, and concat the results as strings, with separator between elements.

;; list to string
(string-equal
 (mapconcat 'number-to-string '(1 2 3) ",")
 "1,2,3")

;; list to string
(string-equal
 (mapconcat 'identity '("a" "b" "c") ",")
 "a,b,c")

;; vector to string
(string-equal
 (mapconcat 'number-to-string [1 2 3] ",")
 "1,2,3")