setf is like referring to a mutable reference in C++ or Java.
https://www.lispworks.com/documentation/HyperSpec/Body/m_set...
It seems that OP didn't know what a reference is.
https://www.lispworks.com/documentation/HyperSpec/Body/m_set...
It seems that OP didn't know what a reference is.
Setf is rather a computation of a reference, than a reference.
A reference in Java and C++ is a pure pointer, with some syntactic sugar in java (you skeep */-> to define and dereference it), and few corns of sugar spread on top of it in C++ (can't be null).