Symbol vs String

Symbol vs String

Symbols (:name) are immutable and memory-efficient identifiers best used for things like hash keys, method names, and fixed sets of options, while strings ("name") are for actual text data that may change or be manipulated. A common rule of thumb: if the value represents an identifier or category rather than user-facing text, a symbol is usually the better fit. Converting between them is easy with .to_sym and .to_s.

Note: Rule of thumb: use a symbol for identifiers/categories (like :active), and a string for actual text data (like a person's name).

Example: Symbol vs String

status = :active     # identifier -- symbol fits well
name = "Alice"       # actual text data -- string fits well

puts status.to_s
puts name.to_sym.inspect