> L?hett?j?: Joe Van Dyk <joevandyk / gmail.com> > Aihe: 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. Always use a Symbol rather than a String, except if you need to be able to print the string to file/screen/etc. E