Literals

Literals are fixed values but can represent different types. The default set of types are listed below:

Type	Pattern	Example	Description
Boolean	N/A	myVal = true	True / false value
Decimal	#.#	39.4	Stored as a big decimal
Float	#.#F	39.4F	Floating point equivalent of decimal
Long	###L	123456789L	A long is used where a value would exceed the maximum integer length
Integer	##	12345	A standard non-decimal number
Null	N/A	null	Used where a result can be compared to the lack of any value
String	"..."	"This is a string"	A text value
Array	[ ... , ... ]	[1,2,3,4,5]	A collection which stores any values e.g. [1,true,3.5F]
Map	{ ... , ... }	{"pi"->3.14,"planck"->6.62}	A map containing key / value pairs

As they have fixed values they cannot be changed, however they can be used in type operations to create new literals. For example, adding the following two literals results in the creation of a new literal:

addString = "First" + "Second"

Evaluating by using 'addString' would result in "FirstSecond", likewise performing an addition on two arrays:

[1,2] + [3,4]

Would result in:

[1,2,3,4]

Although it may look like we're modifying the first by adding the second to get the result, in actuality a new array literal is created. Literals are the building blocks of all expressions and without them, we could not perform any operations. Even resolved field values are read into literal types. Only variables can have their values modified and updated.