Literals In Java: Types of Literals in Java [With Examples]

Summary:

In this article, you will learn about Literals in Java.

• Literals in Java
• Integral Literals
• Floating-Point Literals
• Char Literals
• String Literals
• Boolean Literals
• Null Literals

Read more to know each in detail.

Programming needs to be optimized for efficiency, faster outputs, and memory. Variables are key in programming that stores data at a particular memory location. While executing a Java program, it stores values in containers called variables, a basic storage unit. To enhance the program’s readability, one needs to follow particular conventions while naming variables and assigning values. A source code representing a fixed value is called ‘literal’. 

Literals in Java are defined directly in the code without any kind of computation. Any primitive type variables are assigned using literals. Java has a generic, class-based, reflective, imperative, multi-paradigm, and is an object-oriented programming language.

There is no way of how the literals in java are represented. The literals in java are represented in various ways. They could be represented in boolean, string, character, or numeric data. The literals in java are a form of data type covering the fixed values temporarily assigned fixed values as well.

The literals in java are source code representing a fixed value. These literals could be assigned to any primitive variable type.

One of the popular programming languages has different data types, viz. primitive data types, and non-primitive data types. Primitive data types include int, byte, short, float, boolean, double, and char, whereas non-primitive data types include arrays, string, and classes. 

The primitive literals in java int, byte, short, float, boolean, double, and char represent certain signed integer values. Such as byte data type is an 8-bit signed, the short data type is a 16-bit signed, the int data type is 32-bit signed, the long data type is a 64-bit type, the float is 32-bit signed, double is 64-bit, boolean has only two possible values i.e. either true or false and lastly, char is 16-bit unicode character.

This article is focused on the ‘Literal in Java’. It covers the concept and types of literals used in Java and their application in programming. After reading this article, readers will have a clear understanding of the literal, how and where to use specific literal while coding in Java. 

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Literals in Java

Literal in Java is a synthetic representation of boolean, numeric, character, or string data. It is a means of expressing particular values in the program, such as an integer variable named ‘’/count is assigned an integer value in the following statement.

int count = 0;

A literal ‘0’ represents the value zero.

Thus, a constant value assigned to the variable can be referred to as literal. 

The question of what are literals has been answered, now let’s understand the use of literals briefly. The literals are represented directly in the code without any need or use of computation. Also, they are used to facilitate the process and can be assigned to any primitive type of variable, this allows the task to run smoothly.

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Literals in Java can be classified into six types, as below:

1. Integral Literals
2. Floating-point Literals
3. Char Literals
4. String Literals
5. Boolean Literals
6. Null Literals

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These literals are again specified in different sub-types, let us see them one by one in the article.

1. Integral Literals

Integral literals are specified in four different ways, as follows:

Decimal: It has a base of ten, and digits from 0 to 9. 

For example, 

Int x = 108;

Octal: It has base eight and allows digits from 0 to 7. While assigning an octal literal in the Java code, a number must have a prefix 0. 

For example,

int x = 0745;

Hexadecimal:

It has a base of 16. Hexadecimal allows digits from 0 to 9, and characters from A to F. Even though Java is case sensitive, it also provides an exception for using either uppercase or lowercase characters in the code for hexadecimal literals.

For example,

int x = 0X123Fadd;

Binary: 

It can be specified in binary literals, that is 0 and 1 with a prefix 0b or 0B.

For example,

int x = 0b1011;

One thing to keep in knowledge is that the prefix is used before adding any integer literal. This prefix gives a direction by specifying the base. Also, the integer literal can also have a suffix namely U and L representing unsigned or long. And as mentioned above, the U and L could be either in uppercase or lowercase.

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2. Floating-Point Literals

Floating-point literals can be expressed using only decimal fractions or as exponential notation. 

For example,

decimal Number = 89d;

decimal Number = 3.14159e0;

decimal Number = 1.0e-6D;

Floating-point literals can indicate a positive or negative value, leading + or – sign respectively. If not specified, the value is always considered positive. It can be represented in the following formats:

-Integer digits (representing digits 0 through 9) followed by either a suffix or an exponent to distinguish it from an integral literal.

-Integer digit.

-integer digit. integer digit

– integer digit

An optional exponent of the form might be as below:

-an optional exponent sign + or –

-the exponent indicator e or E

–integer digit representing the integer exponent value

An optional floating-point suffix might be as below:

Single precision (4 bytes) floating-point number indicating either for F

Double precision (8 bytes) floating-point number indicating d or D 

The floating-point literals facilitate providing values basis the instance requirement. For example, it provides the values that could be used either in the float or double instances. The integer and floating-point literals should not be confused, as the integer literals have fixed integer values whereas the floating literals do not have fixed integers but rather has either fraction or decimal values.

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3. Char Literals

Character (Char) literals have the type char and are an unsigned integer primitive type. They are constant value character expressions in the Java program. These are sixteen-bit Unicode characters that range from 0 to 65535. Char literals are expressed as a single quote, a single closing quote, and the character in Java.    

Char literals are specified in four different ways, as given below:

Single quote: Java literal is specified to a char data type as a single character enclosed in a single quote. 

For example,

char ch = ‘a’;

Char Literal: Java literal is specified as an integer literal representing the Unicode value of a char. This integer can be specified in octal, decimal, and hexadecimal, ranging from 0 to 65535.

For example,

char ch = 062;

Escape Sequence: Every escape char can be specified as char literal.

For example,

char ch = ‘\n’;

Unicode Representation: Java literal is specified in Unicode representation ‘\uzzz’, where zzzz are four hexadecimal numbers.

For example,

char ch = ‘\u0061’;

The char literals in Java contain characters arranged sequentially enclosed in single quotation marks i.e. ‘a’. The character is another type of literal representing the character’s value enclosed within the code.

4. String Literals

A sequence of (zero or more including Unicode characters) characters within double quotes is referred to as string literals. 

For example,

String s = “Hello”;

String literals may not have unescaped line feed or newline characters, but the Java compiler always evaluates compile-time expressions. Unicode escape sequences or special characters can be used within the string and character literal as backlash characters to escape special characters, as shown in the table below: 

These string literals in java is used to populate the string objects. These string literals are a sequence of characters from the source characters enclosed within double quotation marks eg: “a”. The string literals are easier to read and can be easily compilable giving a better chance to optimise the code.

5. Boolean Literals

Boolean literals allow only two values and thus are divided into two literals:

True: it represents a real boolean value

False: it represents a false boolean value 

For example, 

boolean b = true;

boolean d = false;

The boolean literals represent the logical value either true or false. These values are not case-sensitive they could be either in uppercase or lowercase and can be valid.

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6. Null Literals

Null literal is a particular literal in Java representing a null value. This value refers to no object. Java throws NullPointerException. Null often describe the uninitialized state in the program. It is an error to attempt to dereference the null value.

Literals in Java help build basics in programming. Every Java programmer must be aware of this fundamental and essential concept that assigns values to the program’s variables. As null literal is not much used, commonly only the first five literal types are applied. It is necessary to follow the rules and maintain the correct syntax while using any literal in Java.

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It is important to keep in mind that null is case sensitive and it’s important to write it in lowercase. The null literal type cannot be cast to the primitive types such as float, integer, etc but can only be cast to the reference type. Also, contradictory to the general perspective the null is neither a type nor an object. It is only a literal special constant used to point out the absence of value.

Finishing up with certain added information- there are valid long literal in java, are represented by the character L at the end of the expression. The letter L could be either in lowercase or uppercase. This valid long literal represented by the letter L allows the literal to be recognised as a long literal in Java.

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Conclusion 

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