Literals as Tokens
Literals are tokens that represent constant values such as numbers and strings. Literals are the counterpart of variables, which act as storage containers for data and have a particular name associated with them.
Literal data appears directly in code and does not have any name associated with it.
Consider the following code:
Consider the following code:
int age = 55; String name = "Ernie";
In this example, 55 is a literal because it represents a constant number.
The constant string "Ernie" is also a literal.
Here is some code that assigns literal values to primitive numeric variables within their acceptable ranges.
The constant string "Ernie" is also a literal.
byte num = 100; short sum = 1240; int total = 48764; long population = 214748368;
The default type of a nondecimal number is int. To designate an integer literal value as a long value, add the suffix L or l (L in lowercase), as follows:
long fishInSea = 764398609800L;
Integer literal values
Integer literal values come in four flavors: binary, decimal, octal, and hexadecimal.- Binary number system: A base-2 system, which uses only 2 digits, 0 and 1.
- Octal number system: A base-8 system, which uses digits 0 through 7 (a total of 8 digits). Here the decimal number 8 is represented as octal 10, decimal 9 as 11, and so on.
- Decimal number system: The base-10 number system that you use every day. It is based on 10 digits, from 0 through 9 (a total of 10 digits).
- Hexadecimal number system: A base-16 system, which uses digits 0 through 9 and the letters A through F (a total of 16 digits and letters).
Here the number 10 is represented as A, 11 as B, 12 as C, 13 as D, 14 as E, and 15 as F.
