# Newbie question

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-question/179337>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [November 22, 2009, 4:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-question/179337 "2009-11-22T16:01:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![cmic](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/2acd7d/32.png) [@cmic](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cmic)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2009, 4:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-question/179337/1 "2009-11-22T16:01:00Z")

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Hello

I noticed the following example somewhere

def mymethod(opts)  
p opts  
end  
mymethod(:aaa =\> “something”)

I’m wondering what this :aaa stands for. If I omit the  
colon before the dummy aaa, it doesn’t works.

Thanks for any hint/light.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cmic](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/2acd7d/32.png) [@cmic](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/cmic)\
**Post date:** [November 22, 2009, 4:21pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-question/179337/2 "2009-11-22T16:21:29Z")

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On Nov 22, 11:55 am, cmic [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> colon before the dummy aaa, it doesn’t works.

Is because ‘aaa’ is undefined, while :aaa is a symbol

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