Keyword Arguments

Keyword arguments are optional arguments that are passed by name.

Keyword arguments do not take part in method dispatch. That is, they have no role in determining which method of a generic function is actually called.

Keyword arguments in method definitions must match the rules spelled out in the generic function.

Keyword arguments can be useful when you need to add occasionally-used parameters to existing functions, similar to the way you can use default parameter values in C++.

define function describe-list
    (my-list :: <list>, #key verbose?) => ()
  format-out("{a <list>, size: %d", my-list.size);
  if (verbose?)
    format-out(", elements:");
    for (item in my-list)
      format-out(" %=", item);
    end for;
  end if;
  format-out("}");
end function;

This function could be invoked in one of several ways. The first specifies no keyword arguments, and exhibits the default behavior:

describe-list(#(1, 2, 3))
// prints "{a <list>, size: 3}"

Alternatively, the verbose? keyword argument could be used to indicate the verbose behavior was desired:

describe-list(#(5, 7, 3), verbose?: #t);
// prints "{a <list>, size: 3, elements: 5 7 3}"