From: Mark Hahn <mchahn@...>
Date: 2001-12-07T08:01:05+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:27763] RE:  what are symbols good for????


I think it is because symbols are more efficient than a string.

For example:  Say you want to pass a routine the name of a method to
execute.  There are 2 ways:

def slowExecute methodNameAsAString
	eval("self."+methodNameAsAString)
end
slowExecute("do_something")

def fastExecute methodNameAsASymbol
	self.send(methodNameAsASymbol)
end
fastExecute(:do_something)

-----Original Message-----

From: Markus Jais [mailto:info@mjais.de]
Sent: Thursday, December 06, 2001 2:54 PM
To: ruby-talk ML; undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: [ruby-talk:27761] what are symbols good for????


hello

after reading the part on symbols on the pickaxe book and in the FAQ
I am wondering what these symbols are good for???

in all the languages I know  (Java, C, Perl, Python, C++) there are no
symbols (at least I don't know), so I was wandering if there are some good
reasons when to use a symbol??

markus