Re: apply function

[Karan Ahlawat]

On 07/08/23 11:15, Heime wrote:

> I have seem code that calls a function in the following way
>
>    (apply 'nemboss-estring (pp-to-string object) bfname))
>
> than the usual
>
>    (emboss-estring (pp-to-string object) bfname)
>
> What might be the reasons for doing so ?

The most common use case I've seen for this is that apply can take in a 
list as the arguments to the function, where a list would not work, and 
then spread the elements of the list as individual arguments. So

    (+ (list 1 2 3))

doesn't work, but doing

    (apply #'+ (list 1 2 3)) ; outputs 6

does work, since it essentially reduces it to (+ 1 2 3)