Literais

Literais is a term used in Portuguese-language programming literature to refer to literals, the fixed values embedded directly in source code. Literais specify constants that do not change during program execution and include numbers, strings, characters, booleans, and null values. They are contrasts to identifiers and expressions that compute values at runtime.

Typical categories of literais include integer and floating-point literals, string literals, character literals, boolean literals, and null literals. Examples are 42, -3, 0x2A, 3.14 for numbers; "Hello" or 'Hi' for strings and characters; true or false for booleans; and null or nil for absence values. The exact set of literais and their syntax vary by language, and some languages add prefixes, suffixes, or separators to clarify type or base, such as long or unsigned suffixes or 1_000 for readability.

In language design, literais are often parsed as fixed, compile-time values and may participate in optimizations like constant folding. Some languages treat certain literais as immutable and allow them to be used directly in places where a constant is required, while others may impose restrictions based on type systems. The way literais are represented can affect memory layout, performance, and readability, making their consistent handling a common area of compiler implementation.

See also: literals (computing), constants, data types. In natural-language studies, the term literals can also refer to literal readings of text as opposed to figurative interpretations.