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Constants should be declared as static and final. However, constants should not be declared public and final if their values might change (see 31 DCL59-J. Do not apply public final to constants whose value might change in later releases for more details). For example,
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Although final can be used to specify immutable constants, there is a caveat when dealing with composite objects. See 73OBJ50-J. Never confuse the immutability of a reference with that of the referenced object for more details.
Noncompliant Code Example
This noncompliant code example calculates approximate dimensions of a sphere, given its radius:
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The methods use the seemingly arbitrary literals 3.14, 4.19, and 6.28 to represent various scaling factors used to calculate these dimensions. A developer or maintainer reading this code would have little idea about how they were generated or what they mean and consequently would not understand the function of this code.
Noncompliant Code Example
This noncompliant code example attempts to avoid the problem by explicitly calculating the required constants:
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The code uses the literal 3.14 to represent the value π. Although it removes some of the ambiguity from the literals, it complicates code maintenance. If the programmer were to decide that a more precise value of π is desired, all occurrences of 3.14 in the code would have to be found and replaced.
Compliant Solution (Constants)
In this compliant solution, a constant PI is declared and initialized to 3.14. Thereafter, it is referenced in the code whenever the value of π is needed.
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This technique reduces clutter and promotes maintainability. If a more precise approximation of the value of π is required, the programmer can simply redefine the constant. The use of the literals 4.0, 3.0, and 2 does not violate this guideline, for reasons explained in the "Applicability" section of this guideline.
Compliant Solution (Predefined Constants)
Use predefined constants when they are available. The class java.lang.Math defines a large group of numeric constants, including PI and the exponential constant E.
| Code Block | ||
|---|---|---|
| ||
double area(double radius) {
return Math.PI * radius * radius;
}
double volume(double radius) {
return 4.0/3.0 * Math.PI * radius * radius * radius;
}
double greatCircleCircumference(double radius) {
return 2 * Math.PI * radius;
}
|
Noncompliant Code Example
This noncompliant code example defines a constant BUFSIZE but then defeats the purpose of defining BUFSIZE as a constant by assuming a specific value for BUFSIZE in the following expression:
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This code also fails to conform to NUM01-J. Do not perform bitwise and arithmetic operations on the same data. Replacing a division operation with a right shift is considered a premature optimization. Normally, the compiler will do a better job of determining when this optimization should be performed.
Compliant Solution
This compliant solution uses the identifier assigned to the constant value in the expression:
| Code Block | ||
|---|---|---|
| ||
private static final int BUFSIZE = 512;
// ...
public void shiftBlock(int nbytes) {
int nblocks = 1 + (nbytes - 1) / BUFSIZE;
// ...
}
|
Applicability
Using numeric literals makes code more difficult to read, understand, and edit.
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The values 4.0 and 3.0 in the volume calculation are clearly scaling factors used to calculate the sphere's volume and are not subject to change (unlike the approximate value for π), so they can be represented exactly. There is no reason to change them to increase precision because replacing them with symbolic constants actually impairs the readability of the code.
Bibliography
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