From: Robert Klemme <bob.news@...>
Date: 2004-03-31T16:24:23+09:00
Subject: Re: How are Symbol objects used


"Daniel Sheppard" <daniels@pronto.com.au> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:EE0A2C5DE8D7CA4792891604D4FED52E016749F2@mlbmail.pronto.com.au...
> Just saw this over at http://www.c2.com/cgi/wiki?IwannaLearnRuby and
> realised I don't know the answer.
>
>   How are Symbol objects used?
> http://www.ruby-doc.org/docs/rdoc/1.9/classes/Symbol.html
>   Why should I use them to create class attributes? --GirtsKalnins
>
>
> It appears to me that everywhere that you could use a symbol, you could
> just as easily use a string. Is there any reason other than aesthetics
> that you shouldn't just use Strings everywhere? Are Symbols just a
> hangover from an older Ruby version.

Additionally to everything mentioned by others: every string can be
converted into a legal string but not the other way round:

irb(main):007:0> "foo".intern
=> :foo
irb(main):008:0> "\000".intern
ArgumentError: symbol string may not contain `\0'
        from (irb):8:in `intern'
        from (irb):8

Regards

    robert