From: Eric Hodel <drbrain@...7.net>
Date: 2005-03-17T06:12:08+09:00
Subject: Re: Symbol vs String

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On 16 Mar 2005, at 13:00, Nikolai Weibull wrote:

> Also, using strings as symbols and then having the string altered will 
> force a rehash of the table.

You mean this?

key = 'foo'

hash = {}

hash[key] = 5

key.gsub! /foo/, 'bar'

In this case, hash.rehash does not need to be called because Ruby 
copies String hash keys:

hash.keys.first.object_id == key.object_id # => false

Also, String keys are frozen, so you can't modify them:

hash.keys.first.gsub! /foo/, 'bar' # => raises TypeError

-- 
Eric Hodel - drbrain@segment7.net - http://segment7.net
FEC2 57F1 D465 EB15 5D6E  7C11 332A 551C 796C 9F04

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