From: Joe Van Dyk <joevandyk@...>
Date: 2005-02-03T09:44:05+09:00
Subject: Re: symbols vs strings vs ?

On Thu, 3 Feb 2005 09:35:41 +0900, Assaph Mehr <assaph@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Joe Van Dyk wrote:
> > Any rules or guidelines on when to use symbols vs strings?  I'm not
> > sure as to the advantages of using symbols.
> 
> Symbols are immutable strings. Every occurence of the same symbol
> correspondes to the same single object, while every occurence of the
> same string is a different object (with the same value). Thus symbols
> are a bit faster and cheaper to use in things like case statements,
> hash keys etc.
> It's also usually a bit nicer to read in the code, as it signifies that
> what you're looking it at is a unique identifier, rather than something
> that can have a dynamic content.
> 
> HTH,
> Assaph

It did help!  Thanks.