Const Statement

This statement declares a read-only variable for use in a procedure. Use the Dim statement for normal read-write variables.

[Public | Private] [Dim] Constvariable_name As type = init

Prerequisites

A Const statement can only appear inside a class, procedure or a module.
The Public and Private keywords cannot be used inside a procedure.

Parameters

variable_name

The name of the variable to be declared as a constant.

type

The type to be assigned to this variable. The type must be a primitive type or a String. The primitive type keywords are:

Boolean, Byte, Double, Integer, Short, Single

init

An expression that specifies the initial value for the new variable. It must have a constant value. It may only be composed of numeric or String constants, other Const variables, or built-in system functions.

Remarks

Only the Const statement can set the value of this variable. Everywhere else, an error occurs if an attempt is made to modify the value.

The Dim keyword is optional.

If both Public and Private are omitted, the default is Private.

Const variables declared within a class definition are implicitly Shared.

Unlike other declarations, only a single variable may be declared in one Const statement.

Const variables declared within a procedure definition are initialized in the order in which they occur and are known only within that procedure. Const variables outside procedures may arbitrarily make forward references to other Const variables.

Examples

Const c1 As Integer = 10
Const c2 As Integer = c1 + 1
Const ascii_a As Integer = ASC("a")