Problem in COND

[mparsa]

Hi,
I am quit new in lisp programming. I wrote a simple program but It gives me an error when I try to run it.
I think the problem is the way that I call the function but I don't know how to solve it.
I want to have something like switch case in lisp. And this is my program:
(defun test (var)
(cond
((= var "foo")
(message "This is the foo block."))
((= var "bar")
(message "This is the bar block."))
(t
(message "Default case")
)))
(test ("foo"))
Anybody can help?
Thank you.

[wvxvw]

You can't add extra parens in Lisp, like you could do it in C-like languages. In Lisp parens mean you are calling a function. So, in the line (test ("foo")) you are saying this:
call function test with the result of calling function "foo", but "foo" isn't even a function, it is an array of characters (a string), and it's not callable. What you want to do is (test "foo"), i.e. call function test with an argument "foo".

[mparsa]

Hi, Thank you for your help
I also use "foo" without parens. like ( test "foo") but it gave me an error :
Error: `"foo"' is not of the expected type `number'
[condition type: type-error]
Do you know what is the problem ? Can we use string as a variable in lisp ?

[mparsa]

For example when I change my program to the below one, it works. In the below one I just use integer besides string. Is there any way that I use string ?
(defun test (var)
(cond
((= var 1)
(print "This is the foo block.")
(print "yes"))
((= var 2)
(message "This is the bar block."))
(t
(message "Default case")
)))
(setf k 1)
(test k)

[JamesF]

The problem is that you're using the wrong comparator. Try 'equal' or 'equalp' instead of '='.

[mparsa]

Thanks a lot. It is working now with "equal".