# Is there any difference between

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-there-any-difference-between/195104>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [September 17, 2010, 12:28am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-there-any-difference-between/195104 "2010-09-17T00:28:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![msan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/3ab097/32.png) [@msan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/msan)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 12:28am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-there-any-difference-between/195104/1 "2010-09-17T00:28:02Z")

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post[:title] and post.title?

---

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**Author:** ![msan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/3ab097/32.png) [@msan](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/msan)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2010, 12:32am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-there-any-difference-between/195104/2 "2010-09-17T00:32:08Z")

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On Thu, Sep 16, 2010 at 5:11 PM, Mauro [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> post[:title] and post.title?

It allows you to access the attribute value without going through a  
getter  
method. Not really a good idea most of the time, but it can be  
necessary,  
like if you’re calling it from within the getter method itself.

Adam S.