Literals

Use a literal to specify a value directly in an operation.

Use an integer literal to specify an integer type value in decimal, octal, or hex notation of a primitive type int, long, float, or double. Use the following single letter designations to specify the primitive type: l or L for long, f or F for float, and d or D for double. If not specified, the type defaults to int. Use 0 as a prefix to specify an integer literal as octal, and use 0x or 0X as a prefix to specify an integer literal as hex.

Grammar

INTEGER: '-'? ( '0' | [1-9] [0-9]* ) [lLfFdD]?;
OCTAL:   '-'? '0' [0-7]+ [lL]?;
HEX:     '-'? '0' [xX] [0-9a-fA-F]+ [lL]?;

Examples

• Integer literals.

  0     <1>
  0D    2
  1234L 3
  -90f  4
  -022  5
  0xF2A 6
  

  1. int 0
  2. double 0.0
  3. long 1234
  4. float -90.0
  5. int -18 in octal
  6. int 3882 in hex

Use a floating point literal to specify a floating point type value of a primitive type float or double. Use the following single letter designations to specify the primitive type: f or F for float and d or D for double. If not specified, the type defaults to double.

Grammar

DECIMAL: '-'? ( '0' | [1-9] [0-9]* ) (DOT [0-9]+)? EXPONENT? [fFdD]?;
EXPONENT: ( [eE] [+\-]? [0-9]+ );

Examples

• Floating point literals.

  0.0      1
  1E6      2
  0.977777 3
  -126.34  4
  89.9F    5
  

  1. double 0.0
  2. double 1000000.0 in exponent notation
  3. double 0.977777
  4. double -126.34
  5. float 89.9

Use a string literal to specify a String type value with either single-quotes or double-quotes. Use a \" token to include a double-quote as part of a double-quoted string literal. Use a \' token to include a single-quote as part of a single-quoted string literal. Use a \\ token to include a backslash as part of any string literal.

Grammar

STRING: ( '"'  ( '\\"'  | '\\\\' | ~[\\"] )*? '"'  )
      | ( '\'' ( '\\\'' | '\\\\' | ~[\\'] )*? '\'' );

Examples

• String literals using single-quotes.

  'single-quoted string literal'
  '\'single-quoted with escaped single-quotes\' and backslash \\'
  'single-quoted with non-escaped "double-quotes"'
  

• String literals using double-quotes.

  "double-quoted string literal"
  "\"double-quoted with escaped double-quotes\" and backslash: \\"
  "double-quoted with non-escaped 'single-quotes'"
  

Character literals are not specified directly. Instead, use the cast operator to convert a String type value into a char type value.