Literal

A value that is written itself in the source code.

Related concepts:  Value

Closest Wikipedia entry:  Literal (computer programming) — In computer science, a literal is a textual representation (notation) of a value as it is written in source code. Almost all programming languages have notations for atomic values such as integers, floating-point numbers, and strings, and usually for Booleans and characters; some also have notations for elements of enumerated types and compound values such as arrays, records, and objects. An anonymous function is a literal for the function type.

Misconceptions about Literal

18 documented Misconceptions

ArrayInitializerContentsInBrackets — Java

Array initializers list the elements in square brackets

BoxedNull — Java

Passing null to a wrapper class constructor creates an object representing the absence of a value

ComparisonWithBoolLiteral — Python

To test whether an expression is True or False, one must compare it to True or to False

LargeIntegerLong — Java

Large integer numbers have type long

LiteralNoExpression — Java

A literal is not an expression

LiteralString — Java

When passing a literal string as argument to a method, no quotes are needed

NoAtomicExpression — Java

Expressions must consist of more than one piece

NoAtomicExpression — JavaScript

Expressions must consist of more than one piece

NoAtomicExpression — Python

Expressions must consist of more than one piece

NoCallOnStringLiteral — Java

One cannot invoke methods on String literals

NoCharEscape — Java

\ is a normal character in char and String literals

NoFloatLiterals — Java

There are no float literals

NoLongLiterals — Java

There are no long literals

NullIsObject — Java

null is an object

NullIsObject — JavaScript

null is an object

RationalLiterals — Java

Rational fractions are literals

SingleQuoteString — Java

String literals can be in single quotes

StringLiteralNoObject — Java

One needs to call the String constructor to get a String object from a literal