Class

Symbol

Extends:

Symbol objects represent names and some strings inside the Ruby interpreter. They are generated using the :name and :"string" literals syntax, and by the various to_sym methods. The same Symbol object will be created for a given name or string for the duration of a program’s execution, regardless of the context or meaning of that name. Thus if Fred is a constant in one context, a method in another, and a class in a third, the Symbol :Fred will be the same object in all three contexts.

module One
  class Fred
  end
  $f1 = :Fred
end
module Two
  Fred = 1
  $f2 = :Fred
end
def Fred()
end
$f3 = :Fred
$f1.id   #=> 2514190
$f2.id   #=> 2514190
$f3.id   #=> 2514190
Public Methods
=== Equality—At the Object level, == returns true only if obj and other are the same object. Typically, this method is overridden in descendent classes to provide class-specific meaning.
all_symbols Returns an array of all the symbols currently in Ruby’s symbol table.
id2name Returns the name or string corresponding to sym.
inspect Returns the representation of sym as a symbol literal.
to_i Returns an integer that is unique for each symbol within a particular execution of a program.
to_int :nodoc:
to_s Returns the name or string corresponding to sym.
to_sym In general, to_sym returns the Symbol corresponding to an object. As sym is already a symbol, self is returned in this case.
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