Constants

<Boolean constant> 

──┬─ TRUE ──┬─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
  └─ FALSE ─┘

<integer constant>

  ┌◄──────────────────┐
──┴─ /12\ ── <digit> ─┴───────────────────────────────────────────────┤

<real constant>

  ┌◄─────────────────────────────────┐
──┴─┬────────────┬─ /12\ ── <digit> ─┴────────────────────────────────┤
    └─ /1\ ── . ─┘

<string constant>

── " ─┬────────────────────────────────────────────────┬─ " ──────────┤
      │ ┌◄───────────────────────────────────────────┐ │
      └─┴─ /1024\ ─┬─ <nonquote EBCDIC character> ─┬─┴─┘
                   └─ "" ──────────────────────────┘

Explanation

A constant is a literal that contains information and is not changed by any operation. Boolean, integer, real, and string constants are defined in the following discussion.

The following constraints apply to string constants:

  • A pair of quotation marks ("") appearing alone represents a null string (a string of length zero).

  • A pair of quotation marks ("") appearing in a string represents one quotation mark (") within the string.

  • A string constant cannot be broken across a card boundary.

Examples

The following are examples of integer constants: 

12
750
12345

The following are examples of real constants: 

3.1416
.2
1.0

The following are examples of string constants: 

"ABC"
"?*->"
"8-1"
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