 | This article focuses only on one specialized aspect of the subject. (October 2023) |
A symbol in computer programming is a primitive data type whose instances have a human-readable form. Symbols can be used as identifiers. In some programming languages, they are called atoms.[1] Uniqueness is enforced by holding them in a symbol table. The most common use of symbols by programmers is to perform language reflection (particularly for callbacks), and the most common indirectly is their use to create object linkages.
In the most trivial implementation, they are essentially named integers; e.g., the enumerated type in C language.
- ^ Thomas, Dave; Fowler, Chad; Hunt, Andy (2001). Programming Ruby the pragmatic programmers' guide; [includes Ruby 1.8] (2nd, 10 print. ed.). Raleigh, North Carolina: The Pragmatic Bookshelf. ISBN 978-0-9745140-5-5.