Literals in Java

Literals are source code representation of a FIXED value. This means that you can use a literal, well, literally. What the previous statement means is that when a Java literal is used, no further computations are performed. A literal is a value that can be directly assigned to a variable of the corresponding type. A literal can also be used as parameters to pass values to Java methods. Finally, literals can also be used as constants either when used standalone (without ever assigning them to a variable) or by assigning them to public static final variables.

Here are a few examples –

Integer Literals

A Java integer literal is either of type long or int. A long literal has ‘L’ or a ‘l’ at the end of the value. All integer literals not having L or l at the end are of type int. Note that ‘L’ is preferred over ‘l’. This is for code readability, otherwise they are the same for Java compiler.

123456// 1939 is an int literal 1939 // exact amount stolen by a politician17600000000000L

An integer literal can be expressed in one the three supported number systems – decimal, octal and hex. An octal literal is prepended by a 0 and a hexadecimal by 0x.

123456789031// 0 in the beginning implies octal 0x25// 0x implies hexadecimal System.out.println(031 == 0x25); // Yeah, Oct 31 is same Dec 25 // Haloween and Christmas are related after all

Remember that short and byte are also integer data types. So an integer literal can be assigned to variables which are of one of these primitive types – int, long, short, byte. Of course, integer literals can also be asssigned to IntegerLongShort and Byte.

Java Floating Point Literals

A floating point literal defaults double precision. If you intend to use single precision, specify F or f at the end. A double precision can be specified by using D or d at the end. You can also use the e or E for scientific notation .

12345678910111213// following are valid float literals 3.14f 3.14F 3.14d 3.14D 3.14e0 3.14E0

Java Boolean Literals

A boolean literal can be either true or false. The values true and false are not reserved keywords but are boolean literals. They can be assigned to a variable of type boolean or Boolean.

Java Character and String Literals

A character literal consists of unicode character enclosed in a single quote. A unicode value is indicated by prepending \u.

12345'P'; // a char literal being assigned to char variable char last = '\uffff';

A character literal can be assigned to a variable of type char or Character.

A String literal is a collection of characters inside double quotes.

1String bestSite = "CodingRaptor.com";

Java Class Literal

A class literal is a value created by appending ‘.class’ to the end of type name. It represents the class object in the method area of JVM.

1234567Math.class // A class literal System.out.println (Class.forName(“CodingRaptor.com”) == String.class); // prints true// because the Class object of // “CodingRaptor.com” is String

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