Constant
declarations
To declare a constant, add the keyword CONSTANT to a standard
variable declaration:
|
1 |
CONSTANT { access } datatype constname = value |
Only a datatype that accepts an assignment in its declaration can be
a constant. For this reason, blobs cannot be constants.
Even though identifiers in PowerScript are not case sensitive, the
declarations shown here use uppercase as a convention for constant
names:
|
1 2 |
CONSTANT integer GI_CENTURY_YEARS = 100 CONSTANT string IS_ASCENDING = "a" |
Advantages of constants
If you try to assign a value to the constant anywhere other than in
the declaration, you get a compiler error. A constant is a way of assuring
that the declaration is used the way you intend.
Constants are also efficient. Because the value is established
during compilation, the compiled code uses the value itself, rather than
referring to a variable that holds the value.