initialize-instance (ANSI and GNU Common Lisp Document)

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#### 7.7.36 initialize-instance [Standard Generic Function]

#### Syntax::

`initialize-instance` instance &rest initargs &key &allow-other-keys ⇒ instance

#### Method Signatures::

`initialize-instance` (instance standard-object) &rest initargs

#### Arguments and Values::

instance—an object.

initargs—a defaulted initialization argument list.

#### Description::

Called by make-instance to initialize a newly created instance. The generic function is called with the new instance and the defaulted initialization argument list.

The system-supplied primary method on initialize-instance initializes the slots of the instance with values according to the initargs and the `:initform` forms of the slots. It does this by calling the generic function shared-initialize with the following arguments: the instance, t (this indicates that all slots for which no initialization arguments are provided should be initialized according to their `:initform` forms), and the initargs.

Programmers can define methods for initialize-instance to specify actions to be taken when an instance is initialized. If only after methods are defined, they will be run after the system-supplied primary method for initialization and therefore will not interfere with the default behavior of initialize-instance.

#### See Also::

Shared-Initialize , make-instance , slot-boundp , slot-makunbound , Object Creation and Initialization, Rules for Initialization Arguments, Declaring the Validity of Initialization Arguments