The Difference Between Ruby Symbols and Strings

Symbols are quite an interesting, and often ill-understood, facet of Ruby. Used extensively throughout Rails and many other Ruby libraries, Symbols are a common sight. However, their rational and purpose is something of a mystery to many Rubyists. This misunderstanding can probably be attributed to many methods throughout Ruby using Symbols and Strings interchangeably. Hopefully, this tutorial will show the value of Symbols and why they are a very useful attribute of Ruby.

http://www.robertsosinski.com/2009/01/11/the-difference-between-ruby-symbols-and-strings/