Convert string to symbol-able in ruby

Question

Symbols are usually represented as such

:book_author_title

but if I have a string:

\"Book Author Title\"

Answer 1

"Book Author Title".parameterize('_').to_sym
=> :book_author_title

http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveSupport/Inflector.html#method-i-parameterize

parameterize is a rails method, and it lets you choose what you want the separator to be. It is a dash "-" by default.