nconc &rest lists => concatenated-list
list—each but the last must be a list (which might be a dotted list but must not be a circular list); the last list may be any object.
concatenated-list—a list.
Returns a list that is the concatenation of lists. If no lists are supplied, (nconc) returns nil.
nconc is defined using the following recursive relationship:
(nconc) => ()
(nconc nil . lists) == (nconc . lists)
(nconc list) => list
(nconc list-1 list-2) == (progn (rplacd (last list-1) list-2) list-1)
(nconc list-1 list-2 . lists) == (nconc (nconc list-1 list-2) . lists)
(nconc) => NIL
(setq x '(a b c)) => (A B C)
(setq y '(d e f)) => (D E F)
(nconc x y) => (A B C D E F)
x => (A B C D E F)
Note, in the example, that the value of x is now different, since its last cons has been rplacd'd to the value of y. If (nconc x y) were evaluated again, it would yield a piece of a circular list, whose printed representation would be (A B C D E F D E F D E F ...), repeating forever; if the *print-circle* switch were non-nil, it would be printed as (A B C . #1=(D E F . #1#)).
(setq foo (list 'a 'b 'c 'd 'e)
bar (list 'f 'g 'h 'i 'j)
baz (list 'k 'l 'm)) => (K L M)
(setq foo (nconc foo bar baz)) => (A B C D E F G H I J K L M)
foo => (A B C D E F G H I J K L M)
bar => (F G H I J K L M)
baz => (K L M)
(setq foo (list 'a 'b 'c 'd 'e)
bar (list 'f 'g 'h 'i 'j)
baz (list 'k 'l 'm)) => (K L M)
(setq foo (nconc nil foo bar nil baz)) => (A B C D E F G H I J K L M)
foo => (A B C D E F G H I J K L M)
bar => (F G H I J K L M)
baz => (K L M)
The lists are modified rather than copied.