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(elisp)Property Lists

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Property Lists
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   A "property list" ("plist" for short) is a list of paired elements
stored in the property list cell of a symbol.  Each of the pairs
associates a property name (usually a symbol) with a property or value.
Property lists are generally used to record information about a
symbol, such as its documentation as a variable, the name of the file
where it was defined, or perhaps even the grammatical class of the
symbol (representing a word) in a language-understanding system.

   Character positions in a string or buffer can also have property
lists.  Note: Text Properties.

   The property names and values in a property list can be any Lisp
objects, but the names are usually symbols.  Property list functions
compare the property names using `eq'.  Here is an example of a
property list, found on the symbol `progn' when the compiler is loaded:

     (lisp-indent-function 0 byte-compile byte-compile-progn)

Here `lisp-indent-function' and `byte-compile' are property names, and
the other two elements are the corresponding values.

Plists and Alists

Comparison of the advantages of property

lists and association lists.

Symbol Plists

Functions to access symbols' property lists.

Other Plists

Accessing property lists stored elsewhere.