Class: Symbol

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

Methods

=== all_symbols dclone id2name inspect to_i to_int to_s to_sym

Public Class methods

Symbol.all_symbols => array

Returns an array of all the symbols currently in Ruby‘s symbol table.

   Symbol.all_symbols.size    #=> 903
   Symbol.all_symbols[1,20]   #=> [:floor, :ARGV, :Binding, :symlink,
                                   :chown, :EOFError, :$;, :String,
                                   :LOCK_SH, :"setuid?", :$<,
                                   :default_proc, :compact, :extend,
                                   :Tms, :getwd, :$=, :ThreadGroup,
                                   :wait2, :$>]

Public Instance methods

obj == other => true or false
obj.equal?(other) => true or false
obj.eql?(other) => true or false

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.

Unlike ==, the equal? method should never be overridden by subclasses: it is used to determine object identity (that is, a.equal?(b) iff a is the same object as b).

The eql? method returns true if obj and anObject have the same value. Used by Hash to test members for equality. For objects of class Object, eql? is synonymous with ==. Subclasses normally continue this tradition, but there are exceptions. Numeric types, for example, perform type conversion across ==, but not across eql?, so:

   1 == 1.0     #=> true
   1.eql? 1.0   #=> false

dclone()

sym.id2name => string
sym.to_s => string

Returns the name or string corresponding to sym.

   :fred.id2name   #=> "fred"

sym.inspect => string

Returns the representation of sym as a symbol literal.

   :fred.inspect   #=> ":fred"

sym.to_i => fixnum

Returns an integer that is unique for each symbol within a particular execution of a program.

   :fred.to_i           #=> 9809
   "fred".to_sym.to_i   #=> 9809

to_int()

:nodoc:

sym.id2name => string
sym.to_s => string

Returns the name or string corresponding to sym.

   :fred.id2name   #=> "fred"

sym.to_sym => sym

In general, to_sym returns the Symbol corresponding to an object. As sym is already a symbol, self is returned in this case.