From: John D. Burger
Subject: Re: String to List function!
Date: Fri, 24 May 1991 22:12:39 +0000
Message-ID: <1991May24.221239.21903@linus.mitre.org>

·······@cs.concordia.ca (CHEUNG yik-chi) writes:

  How can I transfer a string like "abc ( 1 2 3) def" to
  (abc (1 2 3) def)

Here's an extremely egregious version:

(defun cheesy-string-to-list (string)
  (values (read-from-string (concatenate 'string "(" string ")"))))

And here's one that's not a memory hog:

(defun string-to-list (string)
  (with-input-from-string (stream string)
    (let ((eof stream)
	  (result '()))
      (loop
	(let ((object (read stream nil eof)))
	  (if (eq object eof)
	      (return (nreverse result))
	      (push object result)))))))
--
John Burger                                               ····@mitre.org

"You ever think about .signature files? I mean, do we really need them?"
  - alt.andy.rooney