C# Constants – const vs. readonly in .NET

.netc++constantsreadonly

Today I found an article where a const field is called compile-time constant while a readonly field is called runtime constant. The two phrases come from 《Effective C#》. I searched in MSDN and the language spec, find nothing about runtime constant.

No offensive but I don't think runtime constant is a proper phrase.

private readonly string foo = "bar";

creates a variable named "foo", whose value is "bar", and the value is readonly, here it is a variable, no business on constant. A readonly variable is still a variable, it can't be a constant. Variable and constant are mutually exclusive.

Maybe this question goes overboard, still I want to listen to others' opinions. What do you think?

Best Answer

I believe that author means the following:

Consider example:

public class A {

     public const int a = Compute();         

     private static int Compute(){

          /*some computation and return*/ 
          return some_computed_value;
     }
}

this, will not compile, as you have to have constant value to assign to a . So this is a meaning of compile-time constant .

Instead if you change this to

public class A {

     public readonly int a = Compute();          

     private static int Compute(){
          /*some computation and return*/ 
          return some_computed_value;
     }
}

this will compile. It at runtime makes a computation and assign it to a. This is a meaning of runtime constant

Related Solutions

C# Constants – Difference Between const and readonly in C#

Apart from the apparent difference of

having to declare the value at the time of a definition for a const VS readonly values can be computed dynamically but need to be assigned before the constructor exits. After that it is frozen.
const's are implicitly static. You use a ClassName.ConstantName notation to access them.

There is a subtle difference. Consider a class defined in AssemblyA.

public class Const_V_Readonly
{
  public const int I_CONST_VALUE = 2;
  public readonly int I_RO_VALUE;
  public Const_V_Readonly()
  {
     I_RO_VALUE = 3;
  }
}

AssemblyB references AssemblyA and uses these values in code. When this is compiled:

in the case of the const value, it is like a find-replace. The value 2 is 'baked into' the AssemblyB's IL. This means that if tomorrow I update I_CONST_VALUE to 20, AssemblyB would still have 2 till I recompile it.
in the case of the readonly value, it is like a ref to a memory location. The value is not baked into AssemblyB's IL. This means that if the memory location is updated, AssemblyB gets the new value without recompilation. So if I_RO_VALUE is updated to 30, you only need to build AssemblyA and all clients do not need to be recompiled.

So if you are confident that the value of the constant won't change, use a const.

public const int CM_IN_A_METER = 100;

But if you have a constant that may change (e.g. w.r.t. precision) or when in doubt, use a readonly.

public readonly float PI = 3.14;

Update: Aku needs to get a mention because he pointed this out first. Also I need to plug where I learned this: Effective C# - Bill Wagner

C# Private Const vs Private Readonly – Key Differences Explained

Well, you can use consts in attributes, since they exist as compile time. You can't predict the value of a static readonly variable, since the .cctor could initialize it from configuration etc.

In terms of usage, constants are burnt into the calling code. This means that if you recompile a library dll to change a public constant, but don't change the consumers, then he consumers will still use the original value. With a readonly variable this won't happen. The flip of this is that constants are (very, very slightly) quicker, since it simply loads the value (rather than having to de-reference it).

Re interning; although you can do this manually, this is most commonly a compiler/runtime feature of literals; if you init a readonly field via a literal:

someField = "abc";

then the "abc" will be interned. If you read it from config, it won't be. Because a constant string must be a literal, it will also be interned, but it is accessed differently: again, reading from the field is a de-reference, rather than a ldstr.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

C# Constants – Difference Between const and readonly in C#

C# Private Const vs Private Readonly – Key Differences Explained

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