ruby-on-rails - 了解 routes.rb 文件中符号的使用

Question

我是红宝石的新手，我正在做一个项目。在 routes.rb 文件中，有一些我不明白的语法。更准确地说，我可以在这个文件中找到：

get :account #with a symbol
get 'notes'  #with no symbol

有什么区别 ？我想:account应该在其他地方定义，在路由过程中更早，对吧？

Answer 1

get :account (using symbol) and get 'account' (using string) are exactly the same in this context. In your route the symbol will be translated to a string by Rails.

It's just a coding style, I personally use the symbols because I like to see the colors in my IDE, it helps me reading my code faster.

And to answer your other question: no you don't need to define symbols anywhere, those are not a method or a variable. You can see them as a constant with a value equal to their names.

Edit: If it's still confusing you can read this pretty complete guide on symbols in Ruby: http://www.troubleshooters.com/codecorn/ruby/symbols.htm