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(elisp)Expansion

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Expansion of a Macro Call
=========================

   A macro call looks just like a function call in that it is a list
which starts with the name of the macro.  The rest of the elements of
the list are the arguments of the macro.

   Evaluation of the macro call begins like evaluation of a function
call except for one crucial difference: the macro arguments are the
actual expressions appearing in the macro call.  They are not evaluated
before they are given to the macro definition.  By contrast, the
arguments of a function are results of evaluating the elements of the
function call list.

   Having obtained the arguments, Lisp invokes the macro definition just
as a function is invoked.  The argument variables of the macro are bound
to the argument values from the macro call, or to a list of them in the
case of a `&rest' argument.  And the macro body executes and returns
its value just as a function body does.

   The second crucial difference between macros and functions is that
the value returned by the macro body is not the value of the macro call.
Instead, it is an alternate expression for computing that value, also
known as the "expansion" of the macro.  The Lisp interpreter proceeds
to evaluate the expansion as soon as it comes back from the macro.

   Since the expansion is evaluated in the normal manner, it may contain
calls to other macros.  It may even be a call to the same macro, though
this is unusual.

   You can see the expansion of a given macro call by calling
`macroexpand'.

 - Function: macroexpand form &optional environment
     This function expands FORM, if it is a macro call.  If the result
     is another macro call, it is expanded in turn, until something
     which is not a macro call results.  That is the value returned by
     `macroexpand'.  If FORM is not a macro call to begin with, it is
     returned as given.

     Note that `macroexpand' does not look at the subexpressions of
     FORM (although some macro definitions may do so).  Even if they
     are macro calls themselves, `macroexpand' does not expand them.

     The function `macroexpand' does not expand calls to inline
     functions.  Normally there is no need for that, since a call to an
     inline function is no harder to understand than a call to an
     ordinary function.

     If ENVIRONMENT is provided, it specifies an alist of macro
     definitions that shadow the currently defined macros.  Byte
     compilation uses this feature.

          (defmacro inc (var)
              (list 'setq var (list '1+ var)))
               => inc
          
          (macroexpand '(inc r))
               => (setq r (1+ r))
          
          (defmacro inc2 (var1 var2)
              (list 'progn (list 'inc var1) (list 'inc var2)))
               => inc2
          
          (macroexpand '(inc2 r s))
               => (progn (inc r) (inc s))  ; `inc' not expanded here.