C# | Literals
The fixed values are called as Literal. Literal is a value that is used by the variables. Values can be either an integer, float or string, etc.
// Here 100 is a constant/literal.
int x = 100;
Literals can be of the following types:
- Integer Literals
- Floating-point Literals
- Character Literals
- String Literals
- Null Literals
- Boolean Literals
Integer Literals: A literal of integer type is known as the integer literal. It can be decimal, binary, or hexadecimal constant. No prefix is required for the decimal numbers. A suffix can also be used with the integer literals like U or u are used for unsigned numbers while l or L are used for long numbers. By default, every literal is of int type. For Integral data types (byte, short, int, long), we can specify literals in the ways:
- Decimal literals (Base 10): In this form, the allowed digits are 0-9.
int x = 101;
- Hexa-decimal literals (Base 16): In this form, the allowed digits are 0-9 and characters are a-f. We can use both uppercase and lowercase characters. As we know that c# is a case-sensitive programming language but here c# is not case-sensitive.
// The hexa-decimal number should be prefix
// with 0X or 0x.
int x = 0X123Face;
- Binary literals (Base 2): In this form, the allowed digits are only 1’s and 0’s.
// The binary number should be prefix with 0b.
int x = 0b101
Examples:
045uu // invalid: suffix (u) is repeated
0b105 // invalid: 5 is not a binary digit
0b101 // valid binary literal
456 // valid decimal literal
0x65d // valid hexadecimal literal
12356 // valid int literal
304U // valid unsigned int literal
3078L // valid long literal
965UL // valid unsigned long literal
Program:
C#
// C# program to illustrate the use of Integer Literals using System; class Beginner{ // Main method public static void Main(String[] args) { // decimal-form literal int a = 101; // Hexa-decimal form literal int c = 0xFace; // binary-form literal int x = 0b101; Console.WriteLine(a); Console.WriteLine(c); Console.WriteLine(x); } } |
101
64206
5
Floating-point Literals: The literal which has an integer part, a decimal point, a fractional part, and an exponent part is known as the floating-point literal. These can be represented either in decimal form or exponential form.
Examples:
Double d = 3.14145 // Valid
Double d = 312569E-5 // Valid
Double d = 125E // invalid: Incomplete exponent
Double d = 784f // valid
Double d = .e45 // invalid: missing integer or fraction
Program:
C#
// C# program to illustrate the use of // floating-point literals using System; class Beginner { // Main Method public static void Main(String[] args) { // decimal-form literal double a = 101.230; // It also acts as decimal literal double b = 0123.222; Console.WriteLine(a); Console.WriteLine(b); } } |
Output:
101.23
123.222
Note: By default, every floating-point literal is of double type and hence we can’t assign directly to float variable. But we can specify floating-point literal as float type by suffixed with f or F. We can specify explicitly floating-point literal as the double type by suffixed with d or D, of course, this convention is not required.
Character Literals: For character data types we can specify literals in 3 ways:
- Single quote: We can specify literal to char data type as single character within single quote.
char ch = 'a';
- Unicode Representation: We can specify char literals in Unicode representation ‘\uxxxx’. Here xxxx represents 4 hexadecimal numbers.
char ch = '\u0061';// Here /u0061 represent a.
- Escape Sequence: Every escape character can be specified as char literals.
char ch = '\n';
Escape Sequence | Meaning |
---|---|
\\ | \ character |
\’ | ‘ character |
\? | ? character |
\” | ” character |
\b | Backspace |
\a | Alert or Bell |
\n | New Line |
\f | Form Feed |
\r | Carriage Return |
\v | Vertical Tab |
\xhh… | Hexadecimal number of one or more digits |
Example :
C#
// C# program to illustrate the use of char literals using System; class Beginner { // Main Method public static void Main(String[] args) { // character literal within single quote char ch = 'a' ; // Unicode representation char c = '\u0061' ; Console.WriteLine(ch); Console.WriteLine(c); // Escape character literal Console.WriteLine( "Hello\n\nBeginner\t!" ); } } |
a
a
Hello
Beginner !
String Literals: Literals which are enclosed in double quotes(“”) or starts with @”” are known as the String literals.
Examples:
String s1 = "Hello Beginner!";
String s2 = @"Hello Beginner!";
Program:
C#
// C# program to illustrate the use of String literals using System; class Beginner { // Main Method public static void Main(String[] args) { String s = "Hello Beginner!" ; String s2 = @"Hello Beginner!" ; // If we assign without "" then it // treats as a variable // and causes compiler error // String s1 = Beginner; Console.WriteLine(s); Console.WriteLine(s2); } } |
Output:
Hello Beginner!
Hello Beginner!
Boolean Literals: Only two values are allowed for Boolean literals i.e. true and false.
Example:
bool b = true;
bool c = false;
Program:
C#
// C# program to illustrate the use // of boolean literals using System; class Beginner { // Main Method public static void Main(String[] args) { bool b = true ; bool c = false ; // these will give compile time error // bool d = 0; // bool e = 1; // Console.WriteLine(d); // Console.WriteLine(e); Console.WriteLine(b); Console.WriteLine(c); } } |
Output:
True
False
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