Clojure collection quirks - Vectors

Working with Clojure collections is a pleasure. Yet, sometimes one may run into unexpected behaviors. In this series, we take a look at the most simple Clojure data structures.


Vectors are sequential collections with constant time random access capability. One can also view vectors as integer to element mappings. Examples:

(def v1 [:zero :one :two :three])

(get v1 1) => :one
(find v1 1) => [1 :one]


You can acces an element on the nth index with the get function or the nth function. Be aware that when a given index is not found the get function returns nil while the nth function throws an IndexOutOfBoundsException. You can specify a default value as a third argument that is returned when the index is not found.

(nth v1 1) => :one
(get v1 1) => :one
(get v1 -3) => nil

Vectors also act like functions (they implement the clojure.lang.IFn interface). An IOOBE exception is thrown when called on an uknown index.

(v1 1) => :one
(v1 9) => IndexOutOfBoundsException!!


We can also modify an item on an index of a vector:

(assoc v1 1 :One) => [:zero :One :two :three]

That’s right, one can change an item on an index of a vector just like with a map.

How is about removing an item from a vector?

(dissoc v1 1) => ClassCastException!!

You can not call dissoc on a vector because that could not remove an item without affecting the indices of all other items after the given index. To remove an item, first you need to split the vector into two parts (calling subvec) and then create a vector from the concatenation of the result.

(defn without [v index]
  (vec (concat 
    (subvec v 0 index) 
    (subvec v (inc index)))))

You can use the subvec function to return part of a vector.

(subvec [0 1 2 3 4] 3) => [3 4]
(subvec [0 1 2 3 4] 1 3) => [1 2]

Usage as queues

Vectors are often used as queues.

  • The conj function appends a value to the end of the vector.
  • The peek function returs the last item of the vector in constant time. (The last function is linear time thus much slower usually.)
  • The pop function drops the last item from a vector.


You can turn a vector to a sequence with the seq function (note that (seq []) is nil). The rseq function returns a lazy sequence of items in the vector in reverse order. It is advised to favor rseq over reverse because of the constant time complexity and lazyness.