constants

[prerna boja]

Hi

Can anybody tell me what is a "named constant " and "literal constant".

I think a named constant is with modifier Final.
like : final String = "Good Morning".

and literal constant is just String = "Good Morning".


Please correct me if I am wrong.

[Marilyn de Queiroz]

I think

literal constant:
final int x = 2;

named constant:
static final int x = 2;
[ February 02, 2005: Message edited by: Marilyn de Queiroz ]

[Layne Lund]

That's almost it. In both of Marilyn's examples, x would be considered a "named constant" because it is the name for a variable that holds a constant value. However, the value 2 assigned to x is a literal constant. A "literal constant" is basically a constant that is stated literally in the code. Here are some examples:

2
50000000L
3.1415
"Hello, World!"
'q'

A named constant is, as stated above, a variable that was declared final. Some examples from the standard API include

Math.PI
Calendar.JANUARY
BorderLayout.NORTH

I guess I should clarify that I am referring to these constants as <class>.<constant name>, but that isn't strictly necessary. Also note that whenever you declare a named constant, it must be given a literal constant as its value. Also, I don't think a named constant is required to be a static, although they often are.

HTH

Layne