Declare Constant at Runtime

Question

I am reading from a file and setting values based on what I read from the file.

My question is: If I wanted to declare one of the retrieved values from the file as a constant how would i do that?

Edit: Say that value is an "int" for simplicity.

Answer 1

I don't suppose you're looking for the final keyword?

final int foo = /* get it from the file */;

Answer 2

Not sure what scope you want for this variable. The "final" keyword is about all you have to work with, as far as creating constants. It's easy enough to define a final local or instance variable in terms of runtime data, but declaring a static final class member is harder; you have to have the value available right when the class is loaded and initialized, so you have to do it somehow in a static initializer block:

public static final int CONSTANT;
static {
    CONSTANT = <something!>;
}