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Data Types for Generic Use
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This chapter describes all the data types that Guile provides for
"generic use".

One of the great strengths of Scheme is that there is no straightforward
distinction between "data" and "functionality".  For example, Guile's
support for dynamic linking could be described

   * either in a "data-centric" way, as the behaviour and properties of
     the "dynamically linked object" data type, and the operations that
     may be applied to instances of this type

   * or in a "functionality-centric" way, as the set of procedures that
     constitute Guile's support for dynamic linking, in the context of
     the module system.

The contents of this chapter are, therefore, a matter of judgement.  By
"generic use", we mean to select those data types whose typical use as
_data_ in a wide variety of programming contexts is more important than
their use in the implementation of a particular piece of
_functionality_.

The following menu shows the data types that are documented in this
chapter.  The final section of this chapter lists all the core Guile
data types that are not documented here, and provides links to the
"functionality-centric" sections of this manual that cover them.

Booleans

True/false values.

Numbers

Numerical data types.

Characters

New character names.

Strings

Special things about strings.

Regular Expressions

Pattern matching and substitution.

Symbols and Variables

Manipulating the Scheme symbol table.

Keywords

Self-quoting, customizable display keywords.

Pairs

Scheme's basic building block.

Lists

Special list functions supported by Guile.

Records

Structures

Arrays

Association Lists and Hash Tables

Vectors

Hooks

User-customizable event lists.

Other Data Types

Data types that are documented elsewhere.