Figure 2.8, “Concrete Syntax for Constant Declaration” presents the concrete syntax for BIR constant declaration. Constants are useful to parameterize BIR models. A constant declaration consists of declarations of its identifier <const-id>, its elements, and the literals assigned to the elements. The type of constant elements depend on the type of the literals assigned to them. Constant elements are not variables, instead, they are simply value bindings of the literals to the constant element identifiers. The bindings cannot be changed at run-time. The fully qualified name of a constant element is <const-id> "." <const-elem-id>. A constant element can only be referred using its fully qualified name.

Namespace. The namespace for constants is the global namespace that is shared with enumerations, records, extensions, type-aliases, global variables, threads and functions, virtual tables, and functional expressions. Each constant has its own namespace for its elements.

Examples. 

              
   const C {
    N = 5; // int constant
    M = (int wrap (0, 255)) 5; // int wrap (0, 255) constant
    L1 = 5L; // long constant
    L2 = 5l; // long constant
    L3 = -5L; // long constant
    L4 = -5l; // long constant
    F1 = 1.0F; // float constant
    F2 = 1.0f; // float constant
    F3 = -1.0F; // float constant
    F4 = -1.0f; // float constant
    F5 = 1F; // float constant
    F6 = 1f; // float constant
    F7 = -1F; // float constant
    F8 = -1f; // float constant
    D1 = 1.0; // double constant
    D2 = 1.0D; // double constant
    D3 = 1.0d; // double constant
    D4 = -1.0; // double constant
    D5 = -1.0D; // double constant
    D6 = -1.0d; // double constant
    D7 = 1D; // double constant
    D8 = 1d; // double constant
    D9 = -1D; // double constant
    D10 = -1d; // double constant
    C = 'c'; // char constant
    B1 = true; // boolean constant
    B2 = false; // boolean constant
    S1 = null; // string constant
    S2 = "s"; // string constant
  }
    

Abstract Syntax Tree. 

The Java AST class for BIR constant is the ConstantDefinition . The top level Java AST class for BIR constant elements is Constant class. The Java AST class for boolean constant element, char constant element, int constant element, long constant element, float constant element, double constant element, and string constant element are the BooleanConstant class, the IntConstant class, the IntConstant class, the LongConstant class, the FloatConstant class, the DoubleConstant class, and the StringConstant class, respectively.