Use symbols as keys for _reflections

Using a simple benchmark such as:

```ruby
Post.transaction do
  100.times do
    post = Post.create!(author_id: 42, title: "A" * 50, body: "a" * 400, tags: "blah blah blah", published_at: Time.now, comments_count: 20)
    20.times do
      post.comments.create!(author_id: 42, body: "a" * 120, tags: "blah blah blah", published_at: Time.now)
    end
  end
end

posts = Post.includes(:comments).to_a
```

This allocate `43,077` objects, and out of these `2,200` are caused by association
names being stored as strings internally:

```
Allocated String Report
-----------------------------------
  80.00 kB    2000  "post"
              2000  activerecord/lib/active_record/reflection.rb:123

   8.00 kB     200  "comments"
               200  activerecord/lib/active_record/reflection.rb:123
```

This is because many API accept either symbol or string, and blindly
call `to_s` on it. We could avoid this with sprinkling the code with
`Symbol == association ? association.name : association.to_s`, but it's
ugly.

This issue may be entirely solved in a future Ruby version, but
it will take years: https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/20350

By using symbols, we both save allocations, and marginally speed up
lookups and comparisons, reducing this particular benchmark allocations
by 5%.

It's a bit unclear why these were ever made strings. Historically
symbols were immortal and using them for user supplied data could lead
to DOS vulnerability, so this may have been why, but it's not longer
a concern since Ruby 2.2.

Author: byroot

activerecord/lib/active_record/associations.rb

@@ -2114,7 +2114,7 @@ def destroy_associations
           end
 
           has_many name, scope, **hm_options, &extension
-          _reflections[name.to_s].parent_reflection = habtm_reflection
+          _reflections[name].parent_reflection = habtm_reflection
         end
       end
   end

activerecord/lib/active_record/associations/preloader/branch.rb

@@ -9,7 +9,13 @@ class Branch # :nodoc:
         attr_writer :preloaded_records
 
         def initialize(association:, children:, parent:, associate_by_default:, scope:)
-          @association = association
+          @association = if association
+            begin
+              @association = association.to_sym
+            rescue NoMethodError
+              raise ArgumentError, "Association names must be Symbol or String, got: #{association.class.name}"
+            end
+          end
           @parent = parent
           @scope = scope
           @associate_by_default = associate_by_default

activerecord/lib/active_record/message_pack.rb

@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ def build_entry(record)
       end
 
       def add_cached_associations(record, entry)
-        record.class.reflections.each_value do |reflection|
+        record.class.normalized_reflections.each_value do |reflection|
           if record.association_cached?(reflection.name)
             entry << reflection.name << encode(record.association(reflection.name).target)
           end

activerecord/lib/active_record/reflection.rb

@@ -22,12 +22,12 @@ def create(macro, name, scope, options, ar)
 
       def add_reflection(ar, name, reflection)
         ar.clear_reflections_cache
-        name = -name.to_s
+        name = name.to_sym
         ar._reflections = ar._reflections.except(name).merge!(name => reflection)
       end
 
       def add_aggregate_reflection(ar, name, reflection)
-        ar.aggregate_reflections = ar.aggregate_reflections.merge(-name.to_s => reflection)
+        ar.aggregate_reflections = ar.aggregate_reflections.merge(name.to_sym => reflection)
       end
 
       private
@@ -68,14 +68,18 @@ def reflect_on_all_aggregations
       #   Account.reflect_on_aggregation(:balance) # => the balance AggregateReflection
       #
       def reflect_on_aggregation(aggregation)
-        aggregate_reflections[aggregation.to_s]
+        aggregate_reflections[aggregation.to_sym]
       end
 
       # Returns a Hash of name of the reflection as the key and an AssociationReflection as the value.
       #
-      #   Account.reflections # => {"balance" => AggregateReflection}
+      #   Account.reflections # => {balance: => AggregateReflection}
       #
       def reflections
+        normalized_reflections.stringify_keys
+      end
+
+      def normalized_reflections # :nodoc
         @__reflections ||= begin
           ref = {}
 
@@ -84,13 +88,13 @@ def reflections
 
             if parent_reflection
               parent_name = parent_reflection.name
-              ref[parent_name.to_s] = parent_reflection
+              ref[parent_name] = parent_reflection
             else
               ref[name] = reflection
             end
           end
 
-          ref
+          ref.freeze
         end
       end
 
@@ -105,7 +109,7 @@ def reflections
       #   Account.reflect_on_all_associations(:has_many)  # returns an array of all has_many associations
       #
       def reflect_on_all_associations(macro = nil)
-        association_reflections = reflections.values
+        association_reflections = normalized_reflections.values
         association_reflections.select! { |reflection| reflection.macro == macro } if macro
         association_reflections
       end
@@ -116,16 +120,18 @@ def reflect_on_all_associations(macro = nil)
       #   Invoice.reflect_on_association(:line_items).macro  # returns :has_many
       #
       def reflect_on_association(association)
-        reflections[association.to_s]
+        normalized_reflections[association.to_sym]
       end
 
       def _reflect_on_association(association) # :nodoc:
-        _reflections[association.to_s]
+        _reflections[association.to_sym]
       end
 
       # Returns an array of AssociationReflection objects for all associations which have <tt>:autosave</tt> enabled.
       def reflect_on_all_autosave_associations
-        reflections.values.select { |reflection| reflection.options[:autosave] }
+        reflections = normalized_reflections.values
+        reflections.select! { |reflection| reflection.options[:autosave] }
+        reflections
       end
 
       def clear_reflections_cache # :nodoc:
@@ -1159,7 +1165,7 @@ def check_validity!
         end
 
         if parent_reflection.nil?
-          reflections = active_record.reflections.keys.map(&:to_sym)
+          reflections = active_record.normalized_reflections.keys
 
           if reflections.index(through_reflection.name) > reflections.index(name)
             raise HasManyThroughOrderError.new(active_record.name, self, through_reflection)

activerecord/test/cases/associations/eager_test.rb

@@ -1557,10 +1557,15 @@ def test_preloading_has_many_through_with_custom_scope
   end
 
   test "preload with invalid argument" do
-    exception = assert_raises(ActiveRecord::AssociationNotFoundError) do
+    exception = assert_raises(ArgumentError) do
       Author.preload(10).to_a
     end
-    assert_match(/Association named '10' was not found on Author; perhaps you misspelled it\?/, exception.message)
+    assert_match(/Association names must be Symbol or String, got: Integer/, exception.message)
+
+    exception = assert_raises(ActiveRecord::AssociationNotFoundError) do
+      Author.preload(:does_not_exists).to_a
+    end
+    assert_match(/Association named 'does_not_exists' was not found on Author; perhaps you misspelled it\?/, exception.message)
   end
 
   test "associations with extensions are not instance dependent" do

activerecord/test/cases/associations/has_and_belongs_to_many_associations_test.rb

@@ -928,7 +928,7 @@ def test_redefine_habtm
   end
 
   def test_habtm_with_reflection_using_class_name_and_fixtures
-    assert_not_nil Developer._reflections["shared_computers"]
+    assert_not_nil Developer._reflections[:shared_computers]
     # Checking the fixture for named association is important here, because it's the only way
     # we've been able to reproduce this bug
     assert_not_nil File.read(File.expand_path("../../fixtures/developers.yml", __dir__)).index("shared_computers")

activerecord/test/cases/autosave_association_test.rb

@@ -170,6 +170,7 @@ def test_cyclic_autosaves_do_not_add_multiple_validations
   private
     def assert_no_difference_when_adding_callbacks_twice_for(model, association_name)
       reflection = model.reflect_on_association(association_name)
+      assert_not_nil reflection
       assert_no_difference "callbacks_for_model(#{model.name}).length" do
         model.send(:add_autosave_association_callbacks, reflection)
       end