C # Print Literal Values

Literal values are constant values that never change.

They include the following:

String literals

• String literals are used to print alphanumeric words, phrases, or data for presentation.

A string literal is created by enclosing a string in double quotation marks.

For Example:

Console.Write(“number”);

String literals cannot however be used for calculations.

Character Literals

• Character literal, denoted as char which is the short form of character is used to print single alphanumeric characters and is created by enclosing a character in single quotation marks.
  For Example:

Console.Write(‘l’);

• Note that if you use single quotation marks and input more than a single character, as, in the example below, you will encounter an error because the compiler expects a single character when single quotation marks are used.

  For Example:

Console.Write(‘john’);

 Output   
 (2,15): error CS1012: Too many characters in character literal

• Character literals cannot be used for calculations.

Integer Literals

• Integer literals are used to display numeric whole numbers.* They can however not be used to display fractions.* Integer literals are denoted as int when used in coding.* They require no other operator as is the case for string and character literals.

For Example:

Console.Write(123);

Floating literals

• A float-point number is a number that contains decimals e.g. 1.5023.* They are of three types with different levels of precision, namely.

Float Type	Precision
Float	~6-9 digits
Double	~15-17 digits
Decimal	28-29 digits

• Precision indicates the number of digits on the right-hand side of the decimal point.

Now let us get to know each of the floating literals mentioned above.

Float

• To create a float literal, you need to append a letter F after the number.

• The letter F is called a literal suffix which tells the compiler to treat the value given as a float.

• The letter F can either be in uppercase or lowercase.* Given float has the least precision, it is best to use it when dealing with fixed fractions.

For Example:

Console.Write(0.25f);

Decimal

This is the compiler's default when any decimal value is used, thus, to print a decimal, enter the decimal number without a literal suffix*.*

For Example:

Console.Write(0.256);

Double

• Just like a float, the compiler needs a literal suffix m to treat a value as a decimal.

Double has the highest precision and is thus good for fractions with a higher number of digits after the decimal point.

For Example:

Console.Write(24.6758m);

Boolean Literals.

• If you want to print a value that represents either true or false, then the bool literal is the correct literal to use.* The term bool is the short form of Boolean.

Example in code:

Console.Write(true);

Or

Console.Write(false);

• You will notice that when the term true or false is used without double quotation marks, as is the case when working with string literals*, there is no error encountered, this is because the two words are reserved to be used as* Boolean literals and the compiler understands that.

Recap

Here is a summary of what you need to know about C# print literals.

• string for words, phrases, or any alphanumeric data for presentation, not calculation.

• char for a single alphanumeric character.

• int for a whole number.

• decimal for a number with a fractional component.

• bool for a true/false value.