Symbol
Returns the integer corresponding to a symbol.
Use Fixnum#to_sym to obtain the symbol corresponding to this integer.
p :foo.to_i # => 8881
p :foo.to_i.to_sym # => :foo
In Ruby, reserved words, variable names, method names, and the like are controlled by these integers. Integers corresponding to objects (obtained via Object#object_id) and those corresponding to symbols are separate items.
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