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(ruby) variables with colons in front

 
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Are there any specific convention with regards to variable naming in Ruby?

I was looking at some rake tasks and was led to believe that their names have a colon in front because it is an internal DSL (according to Fowler).

Then I took a look at this; and variables with colon prefixes are everywhere.

Please enlighten me.

Thanks

Pho
 
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In Ruby, an identifier that begins with a colon is a symbol.
 
Pho Tek
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Thank you. So Symbols are basically interned Strings in java.

Regards,

Pho
 
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Originally posted by Pho Tek:
Thank you. So Symbols are basically interned Strings in java.


Exactly.
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