Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Creating a constant is a similar process to creating a variable. You use the
keyword
const
followed by the type (which will be discussed shortly) and the
constant name.
const int valuesmy;
const string firstname;
const int value = 34;
The first example sets up a constant
int
(number) value called
valuesmy
. The
second example sets up a
string
(text) called
firstname
. Finally, the third
example sets the value 34 as a constant named
value
.
Understanding Keywords
There are two types of keywords in C#, reserved and contextual. Reserved words
are keywords that you cannot use as variables. These are words that are known
to C# and have a particular use. Contextual keywords are words that are used in
particular circumstances, but can be used at other times.
You have already seen three keywords being used in the previous examples
—
int
,
string
, and
const
. When I say that the words are reserved, this means that
the programming language knows that these two words are special and it needs
to treat them in a particular way. You can
'
t create an
int
variable as follows:
int int;
This is because you can
t use the reserved word
int
as a variable name. There are
a large number of keywords that you shouldn
'
'
t use; for more information
consult the C# documentation.
Understanding Data Types
The previous examples used
int
,
const
,and
string
. These are special keywords
that define the type of item that follows the word. For example, the word
int
means that the variable after it is of type integer, which means the value that will be
stored in this variable can be between
2,147,483,648 and 2,147,483,647. A
const
is
a value that never changes, such as a player
-
sbirthdayorrealname.A
string
data
type, on the other hand, is a number of characters that form a word or sentence.
'
There are a large number of different data types in C#. You should consult
online documentation for a complete list, but Figure 14.3 contains some of the
most common data types.
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