Constansts in C#: const VS readonly

Pop quiz: What’s the difference between these three declarations? And, more importantly, when should you use each one?

private const int _Millenium = 2000; 

private static readonly 

 DateTime _classCreation = DateTime.Now; 

private readonly DateTime _InstanceTime = DateTime.Now;

The first creates a compile-time constant, the second creates a run-time class constant, and the third creates a run-time object constant. While developing a typical program you’ll use all three constructs, so it pays to understand the difference. This article will explain the differences between these three constructs and show you when to use each.

Compile-time Constants

Let’s begin with compile-time constants. The symbols you define for compile-time constants are replaced with the value of the constant at compile time. Therefore this construct:

if (myDateTime.Year == _Millenium)

compiles to the same IL as if you had written:

if (myDateTime.Year == 2000)

The compiler replaces the symbol with the value of the constant. This is the main point to compile-time constants: These symbols don’t exist in the IL, only in your C# source. Once compiled, you have the same IL as if you had used the numeric constants in your code.

This implementation of compile-time constants places other restrictions on declaring constants and assigning values to them. First, compile-time constants can only be used effectively for primitive types, enums, or strings. Primitive types are the built-in integral and floating-point types. These are the only types that allow you to assign meaningful constant values as part of the initialization process.

The only constant value you can assign to reference types is null. The reason for this restriction is that you cannot use the new operator when you assign a constant value. In other words, the following construct won’t compile:

private const DateTime _classCreation = 

  new DateTime(2000, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0);

In practice, this restricts us to value types and strings. Any other reference type must be null. User-defined value types simply won’t work at all. For example:

struct MyStruct

{

 // ... 

}

private static const MyStruct _s;   // Doesn't compile.

So, a compile-time constant can only be used for primitive types. The IL generated for a compile-time constant contains the value, not the symbol. The value is “burned in” at compile time.

readonly Values

readonly values are also constants, in that they cannot be modified after the constructor has executed. readonly values are different, however, in that they’re set at run time. You have much more flexibility in working with run-time constants. For one thing, run-time constants can be of any type; as long as you can assign them in your constructors, they will work. I could make readonly values from DateTime structures; I could not create DateTime values with const.

Secondly, you can use readonly values for instance constants, storing different values for each instance of a class type. As we saw at the start of this article, the value of _instanceTime is different for every instance of the object being created.

The most important distinction is that readonly values are resolved at run time. The IL generated when you reference a readonly constant reference the readonly variable, not the value.

Decisions, Decisions

The main difference between const and readonly fields is in their flexibility. Suppose you’ve defined both const and readonly fields in an assembly named Infrastructure:

public class UsefulValues

{

  public static readonly UsefulInteger = 5; 

  public const AnotherUsefulInteger = 10; 

}

Then, in an assembly named Application you reference those values:

for (int i = UsefulValues.UsefulInteger;  i < UsefulValues.AnotherUsefulInteger; i++)

 Console.WriteLine("value is {0}", i); 

If you run your little test, you see the following obvious output:

Value is 5

Value is 6

…

Value is 9

Time passes and you release a new version of the Infrastructure assembly with the following changes:

public class UsefulValues

{

  public static readonly UsefulInteger = 105; 

  public const AnotherUsefulInteger = 120; 

}

You distribute the Infrastructure assembly without rebuilding your Application assembly. What do you suppose happens?

You’ll get no output at all. The loop now uses the value 105 for its start, and 10 for its end condition. The const value of 10 was placed into the Application assembly by the C# compiler. Contrast that with the UsefulInteger value. It was declared as readonly; it gets resolved at run time. Therefore, the Application assembly makes use of the new value without even recompiling the Application assembly. Simply installing an updated version of the Infrastructure assembly is enough. The point here is that updating the value of a public constant is really an interface change. Updating the value of a readonly constant is easily upgradeable.

Using readonly constants will also generate a smaller assembly. Every time you use a const value, the compiler inserts the value of the constant. When you reference a readonly value, the compiler references that symbol. Repeatedly storing the actual values in the IL will result in a larger assembly than repeatedly referencing the same location. This particular argument does not apply to strings because .NET replaces duplicate strings using a process called string interning. The result is that const strings generate more or less the same IL as readonly strings.

Are there any advantages to using const over readonly? Yes; constants can be used in places where readonly values cannot, namely attributes. You can use const values as the parameters to attribute constructors; you cannot use readonly values, or variables. So, when you define objects to use when constructing attributes, those values used for attribute parameters must be const; readonly doesn’t work. Figure 1 shows an example of a simple attribute to tag classes with their state.

[AttributeUsage (AttributeTargets.Class)]
public class ClassStateAttribute : Attribute
{ 
 [Flags]
 public enum CodeState
 {
 Experimental = 0x01,
 Stable = 0x02,
 Released = 0x04
 } 

  public const CodeState Release2Upgrade =

 CodeState.Released | CodeState.Experimental;  

  public readonly CodeState TheState;  

  public ClassStateAttribute (CodeState s) 

 { 

 TheState = s; 

 } 

}

 [ClassState (ClassState.Release2Upgrade)] 

public class NewCode

{

 // Etc. 

}

Figure 1: A simple attribute to tag classes with their state.

You could not, however, rewrite it using readonly values, as shown in Figure 2.

 [AttributeUsage (AttributeTargets.Class)] 

public class ClassStateAttribute : Attribute

{

 [Flags] 

  public enum CodeState

 { 

 Experimental = 0x01, 

 Stable = 0x02, 

 Released = 0x04

 } 

 // Won't work:   Only constant values can be used. 

 // Not read only. 

  public static readonly CodeState Release2Upgrade =

 CodeState.Released | CodeState.Experimental; 

  public ClassStateAttribute(CodeState s) 

 { 

 TheState = s; 

 } 

}

 [ClassState (ClassState.Release2Upgrade)] 

public class NewCode

{

 // Etc. 

}

Figure 2: Readonly values won’t work on our simple example.

The readonly type doesn’t work to initialize an attribute. The actual value of the object must be available at compile time for the attribute to get created correctly. Therefore, only values declared as const (or enums) can be used in this instance.

I always get questions about the relative performance of const and readonly values. Frankly, I’ve never been able to measure any difference between the two; for any operation I’ve tried, they are equivalent. The table in Figure 3 summarizes the different use cases I’ve discussed, and offers my recommendations.

Usage	readonly	const	Comments and Recommendations
Primitive constant	Yes	Yes	Use const. Primitive types that will never change should be const.
Release Dependent const, primitive type	Yes	Yes	Use static readonly. Any constant value that might change should be readonly, not const.
Other constants	Yes	No	Use static readonly. It’s the only one that works.
Immutable members	Yes	No	Use (instance) readonly. It’s the only option, and immutability is enforced by the compiler.
Enumerated values	No	Yes	Enumerated values must be const.
Values used to construct attributes	No	Yes	These must be constants.

Figure 3: Recommendations for the use cases discussed in this article.

Conclusion

There are some small performance gains to be realized from using const instead of readonly, but you give up quite a bit of flexibility. You’ll need to recompile every assembly that uses a const value. In the case of readonly you need only update the definition. This flexibility greatly overrides the minimal performance gains from using const as the key. Minimize your use of const to attribute parameters and enums. Everything else should be declared readonly instead.

Source: ASPNETPRO