To declare a constant, add the keyword CONSTANT to a standard variable declaration:
CONSTANT { access } datatype constname = value
Only a datatype that accepts an assignment in its declaration can be a constant. For this reason, blobs cannot be constants.
Even though identifiers in PowerScript are not case sensitive, the declarations shown here use uppercase as a convention for constant names:
CONSTANT integer GI_CENTURY_YEARS = 100 CONSTANT string IS_ASCENDING = "a"
If you try to assign a value to the constant anywhere other than in the declaration, you get a compiler error. A constant is a way of assuring that the declaration is used the way you intend.
Constants are also efficient. Because the value is established during compilation, the compiled code uses the value itself, rather than referring to a variable that holds the value.
