Yeah, I can say that it may depend on case. For example there is a big difference working on raw data passed to macro and variables passed to macro even if their declaration was static one line above …

some_macro("some value")
# param value in macro: "some value"

value = "some value"
some_macro(value)
# param value in macro: {:value, […], nil}

unquote inside quote block solves the problem. However in some cases you may expect some value to be passed raw instead.

some_value = true

quote do
  if unquote(some_value) do
    :ok
  else
    :error
  end
end

Here since the value is known “outside” the half of code we generate would never be used.

A simple example shows how important it may be:

defmodule MyMacro do
  defmacro __using__(opts) do
    Enum.map(opts[:enabled_features] || [], &apply_feature/1)
  end

  defp apply_feature(:feature_name) do
    quote do
      # …
    end
  end

  # …
end

Look that if we would have only 1/10 features enabled then we would generate only one quote block.

However if we would write it like this:

defmodule MyMacro do
  @all_features [:feature_name, # …]

  defmacro __using__(opts) do
    quote do
      import MyMacro, only: [apply_feature: 1]

      for feature <- unquote(@all_features), feature in unquote(opts[:features] || []) do
        apply_feature(feature)
      end
    end
  end

  defmacro apply_feature(:feature_name) do
    quote do
      # …
    end
  end

  # …
end

then said module with one enabled feature would have generated extra loop with 9/10 skipped elements. Also in example above apply_feature/1 is a public macro for absolutely no reason (comparing to previous example).

Also it would be nice to provide a link for mentioned text as José could talk about other case or just more complex example. It would be good for others to see all sides of this coin.

If it’s stupid, but it works then it’s no stupid!

I have used atom as it’s best for what I called feature_name as those in apply_feature/1 are known at compile-time. You can use strings, integers and every other data that you can write pattern-matching for.

Also take a look at example below:

some_macro(["a", "b", "c"])
# param value in macro
# ["a", "b", "c"]

some_macro(~w[a b c])
# param value in macro
# {:sigil_w, [delimiter: "[", context: Elixir, imports: [{2, Kernel}]],
#  [{:<<>>, [], ["a b c"]}, []]}

some_macro(~w[a b c])
# value of `Macro.expand(param, __CALLER__)`
# ["a b c"]

If you want to call String.to_atom/1 inside macro then:

1. You can call Enum.map(list, &String.to_atom/1) as long as you require list of atoms passed as raw list or sigil (see above example)
2. In function definition String.to_atom/1 call needs to be passed inside unquote/1 call.
3. Inside module and function block you can use String.to_atom/1 call as well inside unquote/1 call as outside unquote/1 call.

Hope that helps.