A literal is a source code representation of a fixed value. They are represented directly in the code without any computation.
Literals can be assigned to any primitive type variable.
byte a = 68; char a = 'A'
byte, int, long, and short can be expressed in decimal(base 10), hexadecimal(base 16) or octal(base 8) number systems as well.
Prefix 0 is used to indicate octal, and prefix 0x indicates hexadecimal when using these number systems for literals. For example −
int decimal = 100; int octal = 0144; int hexa = 0x64;
String literals in Java are specified like they are in most other languages by enclosing a sequence of characters between a pair of double quotes. Examples of string literals are −
"Hello World" "two\nlines" "\"This is in quotes\""
String and char types of literals can contain any Unicode characters. For example −
char a = '\u0001'; String a = "\u0001";