Credo.Check.Readability.PreferUnquotedAtoms (Credo v1.6.0) View Source

This check has a base priority of high and requires Elixir < 1.7.0-dev.

Explanation

Prefer unquoted atoms unless quotes are necessary. This is helpful because a quoted atom can be easily mistaken for a string.

# preferred

:x
[x: 1]
%{x: 1}

# NOT preferred

:"x"
["x": 1]
%{"x": 1}

The primary case where this can become an issue is when using atoms or strings for keys in a Map or Keyword list.

For example, this:

%{"x": 1}

Can easily be mistaken for this:

%{"x" => 1}

Because a string key cannot be used to access a value with the equivalent atom key, this can lead to subtle bugs which are hard to discover.

Like all Readability issues, this one is not a technical concern. The code will behave identical in both ways.

There are no specific parameters for this check.

Like with all checks, general params can be applied.

Parameters can be configured via the .credo.exs config file.