In this article, we will talk about two most commonly used keywords “const” and “readonly” and the difference between them. Let`s get started.
Const:
- We need to assign a value to constant variable at the time of declaration by using a hard coded value or an expression which can be fully evaluated at compile time.
- We can declare a variable as a constant using the const keyword in C#.
- Only built in data types like int, string, boolean etc can be marked as constant variable.
- Once the value is assign to constant variable at the time of declaration, then we can`t change its value. It we try to change the value then we will get compilation error “The left-hand side of an assignment must be a variable, property or indexer”. Because of which constant variables are most commonly called as Compile time constant.
- Compiler compiles the constant value to every location that references it. For example, initially we declare a constant variable with value X and we are using that variable in method named as foo(). After that we change the value to Y then we need to compile the code again so that the change will get reflected in method foo().
- Constant variable are static. So we can access constant variable using the class name.
- Best practice for naming the constant variable is to use Pascal casing.
Readonly:
- We can declare a variable as a read-only variable using the readonly keyword in C#.
- We can assign a value to read-only variable at the time of declaration or in constructor. Once the value is assign then we can`t change it.
- As we can assign a value to read-only variable using constructor, it can have different value for different constructor. Because of which read-only variables are most commonly called as Run Time Constant.
- We can use any data type as a read-only variable.
- We can use static keyword with read-only variables.
- Best practice for naming the read-only variable is to use Pascal casing.
When to use constant and when to use read-only variable:
So the main Key points are:
- If we know that the value of the variable is not going to change in any part of our application then we can declare that variable as a constant variable. For example PI=3.14.
- If we are unsure about the value of variable, but we don`t want other classes to change the value then, we can declare that variable as read-only.
Conclusion:
In this article, we talked about the difference between constant and read-only variables in C# and when should we use them. I hope you enjoyed reading the article.
Happy Coding!!!
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