Compared to C#, Java's final is similar to const or readonly

Question

Wondering if compared to C#, java's final is more similar to which? const or readonly?

Answer 1

Interesting question,

Java's final keyword implies a few things:

• You can only assign the value once
• You must assign the variable in the constructor, or as the part of the declaration

C#'s readonly keyword applies basically the same restrictions.

For completeness - let's look at const:

• You can only assign to it once as part of the declaration
• It is inherently static -- there is only one of those for all N instances of your class

So -- I'd say final is more similar to readonly.

-- Dan

Answer 2

readonly, because just like in C#, you can only set final once, including within the constructor.

Answer 3

Java's final keyword implements both cases of C# readonly and const keywords.

C# readonly

public Employee
{
  private readonly string _name;
  public Employee(string name)
  {
      this._name = name;
  }
}

Java final (readonly)

public class Employee
{
  private final String name;
  public Employee(String name) {
    this.name=name;
  }
}

C# const

public class Circle
{
   private const float Pi = 3.14F;
}

Java final (const)

public class Circle 
{
   private final float pi = 3.14F;
}