Work with literal values

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A literal is a hard-coded value that never changes. When you write Console.WriteLine("Hello");, the text "Hello" is a literal—it's exactly what you want to display, no more, no less.

Common literal data types

C# has several data types for different kinds of values:

Data Type	Purpose	Examples
string	Text (multiple characters)	"Hello", "Alice", "123 Main St"
char	A single character	'a', 'Z', '1'
int	Whole numbers	42, -5, 1000
decimal	Numbers with decimals	3.14, 99.99, -0.5
bool	True or false	true, false

Using different literals

When you use a literal value in your code, C# needs to know what type it is:

Console.WriteLine("Hello");        // string literal - uses double quotes
Console.WriteLine('H');            // char literal - uses single quote for ONE character
Console.WriteLine(42);             // int literal - just a number
Console.WriteLine(3.14);           // decimal literal - needs the decimal point
Console.WriteLine(true);           // bool literal - true or false

Output:

Hello
H
42
3.14
True

Why literals matter

Different data types are treated differently by C#. A string "42" is text and can't be used for math, but the integer 42 can. For example:

Console.WriteLine("42" + "1");     // Text concatenation: "421"
Console.WriteLine(42 + 1);         // Math: 43

Understanding the difference between types helps you write correct code from the start.