Erlang record syntax with single quotes

Question

Can someone explain the single quotes (' ') in this Erlang record syntax?

#'queue.declare'{queue = <<"hello">>}

Answer 1

In this expression, 'queue.declare' is the record's name, and therefore must be an atom.

An atom should be enclosed in single quotes (') if it does not begin with a lower-case letter or if it contains other characters than alphanumeric characters, underscore (_), or @.

Answer 2

's are for atoms and "s are for strings. 's and "s are not interchangeable, so use them in the appropriate places.

If you want to read more, read: http://www.erlang.org/doc/reference_manual/data_types.html