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## 13.1.1 Introduction to Characters

A character is an object that represents a unitary token (e.g., a letter, a special symbol, or a ``control character'') in an aggregate quantity of text (e.g., a string or a text stream).

Common Lisp allows an implementation to provide support for international language characters as well as characters used in specialized arenas (e.g., mathematics).

The following figures contain lists of defined names applicable to characters.

The next figure lists some defined names relating to character attributes and character predicates.

    alpha-char-p     char-not-equal     char>
    alphanumericp    char-not-greaterp  char>=
    both-case-p      char-not-lessp     digit-char-p
    char-code-limit  char/=             graphic-char-p
    char-equal       char<              lower-case-p
    char-greaterp    char<=             standard-char-p
    char-lessp       char=              upper-case-p

Figure 13-1. Character defined names -- 1

The next figure lists some character construction and conversion defined names.

    char-code      char-name    code-char
    char-downcase  char-upcase  digit-char
    char-int       character    name-char

Figure 13-2. Character defined names -- 2

The following X3J13 cleanup issue, not part of the specification, applies to this section:

- CHARACTER-PROPOSAL:2-6-1

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