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symbol literal
Last updated at 11:52 am UTC on 17 January 2006
A symbol literal is shorthand notation for creating an object of the
Symbol
class.
A symbol literal is specified with a hash sign followed by a character string.
#BB, #456, #methodName
For example, specifying
#abc123
is equivalent to specifying
Symbol lookup: 'abc123'
.
Symbol literals are identity objects. If two symbols are equal they are the same object. For example, #abc123 == (Symbol lookup: 'abc123') is true.
Symbol literals are used to represent names used in the Smalltalk system.