Arguments

expression  (optional) (string) the string to read the first Lisp atom or list from

Return

the first Lisp object read from the input expression string; if omitted, NIL is returned

Example

(read "text")  TEXT  the Lisp symbol
(read "12.34")  12.34
(read "(a b c)"  (A B C)
(read "(setq X 123)")  X

Remarks

as only the first Lisp object is parsed, "(progn ....)" can be used to combine multiple expressions