Elixir Atoms and its different forms

Question

So, as a newbie to Elixir lang, I am thoroughly confused with : (colons) on both sides of a variable!

:status is an atom, but we also find in maps or structs stuff like so:

%{
   kkey: "success"
 }

Is the kkey an atom? If so, how is this different from :kkey, the standard way of declaring an atom!

Another example to drive home the point:

IO.inspect(some_variable, label: "value of some_variable")

In this example, is label: considered an atom?

Furthermore, in Keyword List are all keys atoms?

Appreciate clarifications. Thanks!

Answer 1

Your assumptions are correct:

%{
  kkey: "success"
}

is equivalent to:

%{
 :kkey => "success"
}

For more information about Keyword lists, read the documentation.