— Clause: with var &optional = value

Causes var to be bound to value before the loop body is entered. If value is not supplied, var assumes a default binding, which will be nil in the absence of declarations. Also, if value is not supplied, no destructuring is performed; instead, var may be a list of symbols, all of which are given default bindings. If value is supplied, var is bound to it, with destructuring.

Because with creates bindings whose scope includes the entire iterate form, it is good style to put all with clauses at the beginning.

Successive occurrences of with result in sequential bindings (as with let*). There is no way to obtain parallel bindings; see Parallel Binding and Stepping for a rationale.

— Clause: for var = expr

On each iteration, expr is evaluated and var is set to its value.

This clause may appear to do the same thing as for... next. In fact, they are quite different. for... = provides only three services: it sets up a binding for var, sets it to expr on each iteration, and makes it possible to use for... previous with var. for... next provides these services in addition to the ability to turn the driver into a generator.

— Clause: for var initially init-expr then then-expr

Before the loop begins, var is set to init-expr; on all iterations after the first it is set to then-expr. This clause must occur at top-level. init-expr will be moved outside the loop body and then-expr will be moved to the end of the loop body, so they are subject to code motion problems (see Problems with Code Movement).

This clause may appear to be similar to for... next, but in fact they differ significantly. for... initially... then is typically used to give var its first value before the loop begins, and subsequent values on following iterations. This is incompatible with generators, whose first value and subsequent values must all be computed by (next var). Also, the update of var in for... initially... then does not occur at the location of the clause.

Use for... initially... then for one-shot computations where its idiom is more convenient, but use for... next for extending iterate with new drivers (see Rolling Your Own).

— Clause: for var first first-expr then then-expr

The first time through the loop, var is set to first-expr; on subsequent iterations, it is set to then-expr. This differs from for... initially in that var is set to first-expr inside the loop body, so first-expr may depend on the results of other clauses. For instance,

       (iter (for num in list)
             (for i first num then (1+ i))
             ...)
  

will set i to the first element of list on the first iteration, whereas

       (iter (for num in list)
             (for i initially num then (1+ i))
             ...)
  

is probably erroneous; i will be bound to num's default binding (usually nil) for the first iteration.