Atoms are a constant, whose value is its own name. They are always prefixed with a leading colon (:), followed by alphanumeric characters (and possibly _ or @). They may terminate with an exclamation or a question mark. Atoms are similar to enumerations in C and symbols in Ruby. Here are some examples of atoms:
iex> :ok:okiex> :error:erroriex> :some_descriptive_name!:some_descriptive_name!iex> :value@start:value@start
You can create atoms with arbitrary characters with the following syntax:
iex> :"Atom name with arbitrary characters#$%^":"Atom name with arbitrary characters#$%^"
As with all data structures in Elixir, atoms can't be modified after their creation. Furthermore, they are not garbage-collected. Atoms are kept in the atom ...
