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Ruby Ruby Foundations Ruby Core Symbols

Roy Huang
Roy Huang
4,367 Points
Posted by Roy Huang
Roy Huang
4,367 Points

confused with symbol and regular keys

Hello everyone,

I just finish the video and create the same program in the video.

I don't quite understand what does symbol do, and in fact, when I replace the symbol with regular keys, it still works. It makes me even more confused.

Thank you!

ps. and could someone tell me how to copy and paste my code and post it on this forum with good structure and color?Thanks!

1 Answer

jaredcowan
jaredcowan
11,808 Points
jaredcowan
jaredcowan
11,808 Points

Long story short. Symbols are immutable and have better namespacing, also they're faster as they cache on your computer.

See this by opening your ruby console in terminal $ irb and type puts Symbol.all_symbols.inspect

You see? How cool. lol.

Also, check this link for more info.

Roy Huang
Roy Huang
4,367 Points
Roy Huang
Roy Huang
4,367 Points

Hello Jarad, thank you for the link!

I will go through it and see if I could get it