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An association list or alist is a specially-constructed list whose elements are cons cells. In each element, the CAR is considered a key, and the CDR is considered an associated value. (In some cases, the associated value is stored in the CAR of the CDR.) Association lists are often used to implement stacks, since new associations may easily be added to or removed from the front of the list.
For example,
(setq alist-of-colors
'((rose . red) (lily . white) (buttercup . yellow)))
sets the variable alist-of-colors to an alist of three elements. In the
first element, rose is the key and red is the value.
See section Association Lists, for a further explanation of alists and for functions that work on alists.
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