A
symbol
is a data type that represents unique, unforgeable identifiers. They are sometimes called
atoms
.
Because a symbol is unique and unforgeable, you can only read a property value associated with a symbol if you have a reference to the original identifier.
In JavaScript,
symbol
is one of the
primitive types
and can be created using the
Symbol()
factory method that returns a different symbol each time. They can be used as keys for objects which can never accidentally collide with other properties.
JavaScript also defines two other categories of symbols: well-known symbols and registered symbols. Read the
Symbol
reference for more information.