Operators and Expressions

Abstract

A constant is an explicit data value written by the programmer. Thus, it is a value known to the compiler at compile time. The compiler may deal with this value in any of several ways, depending on the type of constant and its context. For example, the binary equivalent of the constant may be inserted directly into the output code stream. The value of the constant may be stored in a special data area in memory. The compiler may decide to use the constant’s value for its own immediate purposes—e.g., to determine how much storage it should allocate to a data array.