Specification for function definitions

Define specifications for your custom functions

• Additional documentation - argument and return values and the relationship between them.
• Instrumenting functions - checking for correct argument values
• Generative testing - using argument specifications to generate comprehensive test data.

Many of the functions in clojure.core have specifications in the latest version of Clojure. The specifications for clojure.core functions can be found in the clojure/core.specs.alpha repository on GitHub.

clojure.core examples

Specifications used for the defn, defn-, fn functions in clojure.core

clojure.core specification examples

(s/def ::param-list
  (s/and
    vector?
    (s/cat :params (s/* ::binding-form)
           :var-params (s/? (s/cat :ampersand #{'&} :var-form ::binding-form)))))

(s/def ::params+body
  (s/cat :params ::param-list
         :body (s/alt :prepost+body (s/cat :prepost map?
                                           :body (s/+ any?))
                      :body (s/* any?))))

(s/def ::defn-args
  (s/cat :fn-name simple-symbol?
         :docstring (s/? string?)
         :meta (s/? map?)
         :fn-tail (s/alt :arity-1 ::params+body
                         :arity-n (s/cat :bodies (s/+ (s/spec ::params+body))
                                         :attr-map (s/? map?)))))