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Symbol

Symbol objects represent names 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.object_id   #=> 2514190
$f2.object_id   #=> 2514190
$f3.object_id   #=> 2514190

Public Class Methods

all_symbols => array click to toggle source

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, :$=, :ThreadGroup,
                                :wait2, :$>]

 
               static VALUE
sym_all_symbols(VALUE _)
{
    return rb_sym_all_symbols();
}

Public Instance Methods

symbol <=> other_symbol → -1, 0, +1, or nil click to toggle source

Compares symbol with other_symbol after calling to_s on each of the symbols. Returns -1, 0, +1, or nil depending on whether symbol is less than, equal to, or greater than other_symbol.

nil is returned if the two values are incomparable.

See String#<=> for more information.

 
               static VALUE
sym_cmp(VALUE sym, VALUE other)
{
    if (!SYMBOL_P(other)) {
        return Qnil;
    }
    return rb_str_cmp_m(rb_sym2str(sym), rb_sym2str(other));
}

sym == obj → true or false click to toggle source

Equality—If sym and obj are exactly the same symbol, returns true.

 
               #define sym_equal rb_obj_equal

sym == obj → true or false click to toggle source

Equality—If sym and obj are exactly the same symbol, returns true.

 
               #define sym_equal rb_obj_equal

sym =~ obj → integer or nil click to toggle source

Returns sym.to_s =~ obj.

 
               static VALUE
sym_match(VALUE sym, VALUE other)
{
    return rb_str_match(rb_sym2str(sym), other);
}

sym[idx] → char click to toggle source

sym[b, n] → string

Returns sym.to_s[].

 
               static VALUE
sym_aref(int argc, VALUE *argv, VALUE sym)
{
    return rb_str_aref_m(argc, argv, rb_sym2str(sym));
}

capitalize → symbol click to toggle source

capitalize([options]) → symbol

Same as sym.to_s.capitalize.intern.

 
               static VALUE
sym_capitalize(int argc, VALUE *argv, VALUE sym)
{
    return rb_str_intern(rb_str_capitalize(argc, argv, rb_sym2str(sym)));
}

casecmp(other_symbol) → -1, 0, +1, or nil click to toggle source

Case-insensitive version of Symbol#<=>. Currently, case-insensitivity only works on characters A-Z/a-z, not all of Unicode. This is different from Symbol#casecmp?.

:aBcDeF.casecmp(:abcde)     #=> 1
:aBcDeF.casecmp(:abcdef)    #=> 0
:aBcDeF.casecmp(:abcdefg)   #=> -1
:abcdef.casecmp(:ABCDEF)    #=> 0

nil is returned if the two symbols have incompatible encodings, or if other_symbol is not a symbol.

:foo.casecmp(2)   #=> nil
"\u{e4 f6 fc}".encode("ISO-8859-1").to_sym.casecmp(:"\u{c4 d6 dc}")   #=> nil

 
               static VALUE
sym_casecmp(VALUE sym, VALUE other)
{
    if (!SYMBOL_P(other)) {
        return Qnil;
    }
    return str_casecmp(rb_sym2str(sym), rb_sym2str(other));
}

casecmp?(other_symbol) → true, false, or nil click to toggle source

Returns true if sym and other_symbol are equal after Unicode case folding, false if they are not equal.

:aBcDeF.casecmp?(:abcde)     #=> false
:aBcDeF.casecmp?(:abcdef)    #=> true
:aBcDeF.casecmp?(:abcdefg)   #=> false
:abcdef.casecmp?(:ABCDEF)    #=> true
:"\u{e4 f6 fc}".casecmp?(:"\u{c4 d6 dc}")   #=> true

nil is returned if the two symbols have incompatible encodings, or if other_symbol is not a symbol.

:foo.casecmp?(2)   #=> nil
"\u{e4 f6 fc}".encode("ISO-8859-1").to_sym.casecmp?(:"\u{c4 d6 dc}")   #=> nil

 
               static VALUE
sym_casecmp_p(VALUE sym, VALUE other)
{
    if (!SYMBOL_P(other)) {
        return Qnil;
    }
    return str_casecmp_p(rb_sym2str(sym), rb_sym2str(other));
}

downcase → symbol click to toggle source

downcase([options]) → symbol

Same as sym.to_s.downcase.intern.

 
               static VALUE
sym_downcase(int argc, VALUE *argv, VALUE sym)
{
    return rb_str_intern(rb_str_downcase(argc, argv, rb_sym2str(sym)));
}

empty? → true or false click to toggle source

Returns whether sym is :“” or not.

 
               static VALUE
sym_empty(VALUE sym)
{
    return rb_str_empty(rb_sym2str(sym));
}

encoding → encoding click to toggle source

Returns the Encoding object that represents the encoding of sym.

 
               static VALUE
sym_encoding(VALUE sym)
{
    return rb_obj_encoding(rb_sym2str(sym));
}

end_with?([suffixes]+) → true or false click to toggle source

Returns true if sym ends with one of the suffixes given.

:hello.end_with?("ello")               #=> true

# returns true if one of the +suffixes+ matches.
:hello.end_with?("heaven", "ello")     #=> true
:hello.end_with?("heaven", "paradise") #=> false

 
               static VALUE
sym_end_with(int argc, VALUE *argv, VALUE sym)
{
    return rb_str_end_with(argc, argv, rb_sym2str(sym));
}

id2name → string click to toggle source

Returns the name or string corresponding to sym.

:fred.id2name   #=> "fred"
:ginger.to_s    #=> "ginger"

 
               VALUE
rb_sym_to_s(VALUE sym)
{
    return str_new_shared(rb_cString, rb_sym2str(sym));
}

inspect → string click to toggle source

Returns the representation of sym as a symbol literal.

:fred.inspect   #=> ":fred"

 
               static VALUE
sym_inspect(VALUE sym)
{
    VALUE str = rb_sym2str(sym);
    const char *ptr;
    long len;
    char *dest;

    if (!rb_str_symname_p(str)) {
        str = rb_str_inspect(str);
        len = RSTRING_LEN(str);
        rb_str_resize(str, len + 1);
        dest = RSTRING_PTR(str);
        memmove(dest + 1, dest, len);
    }
    else {
        rb_encoding *enc = STR_ENC_GET(str);
        RSTRING_GETMEM(str, ptr, len);
        str = rb_enc_str_new(0, len + 1, enc);
        dest = RSTRING_PTR(str);
        memcpy(dest + 1, ptr, len);
    }
    dest[0] = ':';
    return str;
}

intern → sym click to toggle source

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

 
               static VALUE
sym_to_sym(VALUE sym)
{
    return sym;
}

length → integer click to toggle source

Same as sym.to_s.length.

 
               static VALUE
sym_length(VALUE sym)
{
    return rb_str_length(rb_sym2str(sym));
}

match(pattern) → matchdata or nil click to toggle source

match(pattern, pos) → matchdata or nil

Returns sym.to_s.match.

 
               static VALUE
sym_match_m(int argc, VALUE *argv, VALUE sym)
{
    return rb_str_match_m(argc, argv, rb_sym2str(sym));
}

match?(pattern) → true or false click to toggle source

match?(pattern, pos) → true or false

Returns sym.to_s.match?.

 
               static VALUE
sym_match_m_p(int argc, VALUE *argv, VALUE sym)
{
    return rb_str_match_m_p(argc, argv, sym);
}

succ click to toggle source

Same as sym.to_s.succ.intern.

 
               static VALUE
sym_succ(VALUE sym)
{
    return rb_str_intern(rb_str_succ(rb_sym2str(sym)));
}

size → integer click to toggle source

Same as sym.to_s.length.

 
               static VALUE
sym_length(VALUE sym)
{
    return rb_str_length(rb_sym2str(sym));
}

slice(idx) → char click to toggle source

slice(b, n) → string

Returns sym.to_s[].

 
               static VALUE
sym_aref(int argc, VALUE *argv, VALUE sym)
{
    return rb_str_aref_m(argc, argv, rb_sym2str(sym));
}

start_with?([prefixes]+) → true or false click to toggle source

Returns true if sym starts with one of the prefixes given. Each of the prefixes should be a String or a Regexp.

:hello.start_with?("hell")               #=> true
:hello.start_with?(/H/i)                 #=> true

# returns true if one of the prefixes matches.
:hello.start_with?("heaven", "hell")     #=> true
:hello.start_with?("heaven", "paradise") #=> false

 
               static VALUE
sym_start_with(int argc, VALUE *argv, VALUE sym)
{
    return rb_str_start_with(argc, argv, rb_sym2str(sym));
}

succ click to toggle source

Same as sym.to_s.succ.intern.

 
               static VALUE
sym_succ(VALUE sym)
{
    return rb_str_intern(rb_str_succ(rb_sym2str(sym)));
}

swapcase → symbol click to toggle source

swapcase([options]) → symbol

Same as sym.to_s.swapcase.intern.

 
               static VALUE
sym_swapcase(int argc, VALUE *argv, VALUE sym)
{
    return rb_str_intern(rb_str_swapcase(argc, argv, rb_sym2str(sym)));
}

to_proc click to toggle source

Returns a Proc object which responds to the given method by sym.

(1..3).collect(&:to_s)  #=> ["1", "2", "3"]

 
               VALUE
rb_sym_to_proc(VALUE sym)
{
}

to_s → string click to toggle source

Returns the name or string corresponding to sym.

:fred.id2name   #=> "fred"
:ginger.to_s    #=> "ginger"

 
               VALUE
rb_sym_to_s(VALUE sym)
{
    return str_new_shared(rb_cString, rb_sym2str(sym));
}

to_sym → sym click to toggle source

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

 
               static VALUE
sym_to_sym(VALUE sym)
{
    return sym;
}

upcase → symbol click to toggle source

upcase([options]) → symbol

Same as sym.to_s.upcase.intern.

 
               static VALUE
sym_upcase(int argc, VALUE *argv, VALUE sym)
{
    return rb_str_intern(rb_str_upcase(argc, argv, rb_sym2str(sym)));
}