Programming Clojure, Fourth Edition by Alex Miller

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Pages: 320 Published: May 2026 ISBN: 9798888651919 In Print

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Programming Clojure, Fourth Edition

by Alex Miller

Struggling with unnecessary complexity, unmanaged state, and brittle data that’s hard to change? Clojure combines the expressiveness of Lisp with the stability and performance of Java into a practical toolkit for creating simple, extensible applications. With immutable data structures, functional programming, and safe concurrency, Clojure makes it easier to write robust, reusable code. This definitive guide, written by members of the Clojure core team, introduces the language’s essentials and then shows how to put everything together in real applications. This edition adds practical coverage of project tooling and interactive development and fresh examples of the latest Clojure features.

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Please support indie bookstores! Find indie bookstores in the U.S. Find indie bookstores around the world. Build cleaner, more reliable software that can respond to changing requirements over time. Combine Clojure’s tools for maximum effectiveness as you work with immutable data, functional programming, and safe concurrency to write programs that solve real-world problems.

Start by getting comfortable with Clojure’s concise syntax and its interactive REPL, then quickly move into building with immutable collections and the powerful sequence abstraction. Gain practical fluency with functional techniques such as higher-order functions, recursion, partial application, and memoization. Beyond the basics, learn to manage state with Clojure’s reference types, build open and extensible systems using protocols and multimethods, and unlock the power of macros for creating your own language features. Seamless Java interop lets you tap into the vast Java ecosystem without sacrificing clarity or safety.

This edition adds two new chapters on project tooling and interactive development, guiding you through modern workflows with tests, builds, editors, and the REPL at the center of your process. Learn how to set up projects, manage dependencies, and work productively in Clojure’s unique interactive style. When you’re finished, you’ll be able to think in Clojure: express solutions with clarity, leverage concurrency safely, and build real-world applications that are simpler and more maintainable than you thought possible.

What You Need

Java 8 or newer
Clojure 1.12 or newer

Resources

Releases:

2026/03/26

P1.0

2025/12/24

B3.0

Off to production

2025/11/25

B2.0

final beta

2025/10/17

B1.0

Initial beta release.

Contents & Extracts

Table of Contents

Welcome to Clojure
Getting Started
Simplicity and Power in Action
Clojure Coding Quick Start
Navigating Clojure Namespaces
Wrapping Up
Exploring Clojure
Reading Clojure
Functions
Vars, Bindings, and Namespaces
Metadata
Calling Java
Comments
Flow Control
Where’s My for Loop?
Wrapping Up
Developing Interactively
The REPL (Read-Eval-Print-Loop)
Editors
Structural Editing
Loading and Evaluating Code
Dependencies in the REPL
Wrapping Up
Data and Functions
Unifying Data with Sequences
Everything Is Seq-able
Using the Sequence Functions
Lazy and Infinite Sequences
Clojure Makes Java Seq-able
Calling Structure-Specific Functions
Wrapping Up
Functional Programming
Functional Programming Concepts
How to Be Lazy
Lazier Than Lazy
Recursion Revisited
Eager Transformations
Wrapping Up
Describing Your Data with Specs
Defining Specs
Validating Data
Validating Functions
Generative Function Testing
Wrapping Up
Intermediate Topics
State and Concurrency
Concurrency, Parallelism, and Locking
Use Atoms for Uncoordinated, Synchronous Updates
Refs and Software Transactional Memory
Use Agents for Asynchronous Updates
Managing Per-Thread State with Vars
A Clojure Snake
Wrapping Up
Protocols and Datatypes
Programming to Abstractions
Interfaces
Protocols
Datatypes
Records
reify
Metadata Extension
Wrapping Up
Multimethods
Living Without Multimethods
Defining Multimethods
Moving Beyond Simple Dispatch
Creating Ad Hoc Taxonomies
When Should I Use Multimethods?
Wrapping Up
Java Interop
Creating Java Objects in Clojure
Calling Clojure From Java
Exception Handling
Optimizing for Performance
Handling Java Streams
A Real-World Example
Wrapping Up
Macros
When to Use Macros
Writing a Control Flow Macro
Making Macros Simpler
Taxonomy of Macros
Wrapping Up
Clojure in Practice
Project Tooling
Project Sources and Dependencies
Running a REPL
Defining Tests
Running Tests
Building and Releasing Libraries
Compiling Applications
Wrapping Up
Building an Application
Getting Started
Developing the Game Loop
Representing Progress
Implementing Players
Interactive Play
Documenting and Testing Your Game
Farewell

Author

Alex Miller has been a member of the Clojure core team since 2013 and is the coauthor of Clojure Brain Teasers and Clojure Applied. Alex is the creator or organizer of the Strange Loop, Lambda Jam, Clojure/west, and Clojure/conj conferences. In his free time he dabbles in music production, astronomy, and beekeeping.