Question

I am using Ruby on Rails 3.1 and I would like to know how, when and why I should use one of the following code rather than another on internationalizing my application (I18n gem):

t(:test_key)
t('test_key')
t('.test_key')

That is, what is the “subtle” difference between using t(:test_key), t('test_key') and t('.test_key')? What are best practices about this issue?

Answer 1

I think first two are equivalent and you just refer to main key in your translations, fo example

t('hello_world') 
# t(:hello_world) is an equivalent

would reffer to

en:
  hello_world: "Hello world"

However if you use dot notation, its called lazy lookup
and it will look deeper in your translation structure based on controller/action notation

So if you use this inside users/index template

t('.hello_world')

it will be resolved to

pl:
  users:
    index:
      hello_world: "Witaj świecie"

You’ll find more about internalization in Rails Guides