You can make fixed-size vectors containing specific values with the function , which takes any number of arguments and returns a freshly allocated fixed-size vector containing those arguments.

The #(...) syntax is the literal notation for vectors used by the Lisp printer and reader. This syntax allows you to save and restore vectors by **PRINT**ing them out and **READ**ing them back in. You can use the #(...) syntax to include literal vectors in your code, but as the effects of modifying literal objects aren’t defined, you should always use **VECTOR** or the more general function **MAKE-ARRAY** to create vectors you plan to modify.

**MAKE-ARRAY** is also the function to use to make a resizable vector. A resizable vector is a slightly more complicated object than a fixed-size vector; in addition to keeping track of the memory used to hold the elements and the number of slots available, a resizable vector also keeps track of the number of elements actually stored in the vector. This number is stored in the vector’s fill pointer, so called because it’s the index of the next position to be filled when you add an element to the vector.

To make a vector with a fill pointer, you pass **MAKE-ARRAY** a argument. For instance, the following call to **MAKE-ARRAY** makes a vector with room for five elements; but it looks empty because the fill pointer is zero:

However, even a vector with a fill pointer isn’t completely resizable. The vector *x* can hold at most five elements. To make an arbitrarily resizable vector, you need to pass **MAKE-ARRAY** another keyword argument: :adjustable.

This call makes an adjustable vector whose underlying memory can be resized as needed. To add elements to an adjustable vector, you use **VECTOR-PUSH-EXTEND**, which works just like except it will automatically expand the array if you try to push an element onto a full vector—one whose fill pointer is equal to the size of the underlying storage.4